UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 

BROWSING  ROOM 


GIFT  OF 

E.    E.    Prussin,^ 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Archive 
^      in  2007  witii  funding  from 
i;      IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/conquestofoldsouOOhendiala 


,*S',.f«:f>.  :v' 


THE  CONQUEST 
OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 


JUDGE  RICHARD   HENDERSON 

From  a  drawing  by  T.   Gilbert  White 
Detail  of  painting,  The  Great  Treaty,  in  Kentucky  State  Capitol 


THE  CONQUEST  OF 
THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 


THE  ROMANTIC  STORY  OF  THE  EARLY 

PIONEERS  INTO  VIRGINIA,  THE 

CAROLINAS,  TENNESSEE,  AND  KENTUCKY 

1740-1790 


BY 
ARCHIBALDlHENDERSON,  Ph.D.,  D.C.L. 


Some  to  endure  and  many  to  fail. 
Some  to  conquer  and  many  to  qtiail 
Toiling  over  the  Wilderness  Trail. 


NEW  YORK 

THE  CENTURY  CO. 

1920 


Copyright,  1920,  by 
The  Centubt  Co. 


College 
Library 

F 
396 

H56 


TO 

THE  HISTORIAN  OF 
OLD  WEST  AND  NEW  WEST 

FREDERICK   JACKSON    TURNER 

WITH  ADMIRATION  AND  REGARD 


The  country  might  invite  a  prince  from  his  palace,  merely 
for  the  pleasure  of  contemplating  its  beauty  and  excellence; 
but  only  add  the  rapturous  idea  of  property,  and  what  allure- 
ments can  the  world  offer  for  the  loss  of  so  glorious  a  prospect? 

RiCHAKD    HeKDERSOX. 


The  established  Authority  of  any  government  in 
America,  and  the  poHcy  of  Government  at  home,  are 
both  insufficient  to  restrain  the  Americans.  .  .  . 
They  acquire  no  attachment  to  Place:  But  wander- 
ing about  Seems  engrafted  in  their  Nature ;  and  it  is 
a  weakness  incident  to  it,  that  they  Should  for  ever 
immagine  the  Lands  further  off,  are  Still  better  than 
those  upon  which  they  are  already  settled. 

— ^LoRD  DuNMORE,  to  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth. 


INTRODUCTION 

The  romantic  and  thrilling  story  of  the 
southward  and  westward  migration  of  succes- 
sive waves  of  transplanted  European  peoples 
throughout  the  entire  course  of  the  eighteenth 
century  is  the  history  of  the  growth  and  evo- 
lution of  American  democracy.  Upon  the 
American  continent  was  wrought  out,  through 
almost  superhuman  daring,  incredible  hard- 
ship, and  surpassing  endurance,  the  formation 
of  a  new  society.  The  European  rudely  con- 
fronted with  the  pitiless  conditions  of  the  wil- 
derness soon  discovered  that  his  maintenance, 
indeed  his  existence,  was  conditioned  upon  his 
individual  efficiency  and  his  resourcefulness  in 
adapting  himself  to  his  environment.  The 
very  history  of  the  human  race,  from  the  age 
of  primitive  man  to  the  modern  era  of  en- 
lightened civilization,  is  traversed  in  the  Old 

ix 


INTRODUCTION 

Southwest  throughout  the  course  of  half  a 
century. 

A  series  of  dissolving  views  thrown  upon 
the  screen,  picturing  the  successive  episodes  in 
the  history  of  a  single  family  as  it  wended  its 
way  southward  along  the  eastern  valleys,  reso- 
lutely repulsed  the  sudden  attack  of  the  In- 
dians, toiled  painfully  up  the  granite  slopes 
of  the  Appalachians,  and  pitched  down  into 
the  transmontane  wilderness  upon  the  western 
waters,  would  give  to  the  spectator  a  vivid  con- 
ception, in  miniature,  of  the  westward  move- 
ment. But  certain  basic  elements  in  the  grand 
procession,  revealed  to  the  sociologist  and  the 
economist,  would  perhaps  escape  his  scrutiny. 
Back  of  the  individual,  back  of  the  family, 
even,  lurk  the  creative  and  formative  impulses 
of  colonization,  expansion,  and  government. 
In  the  recognition  of  these  social  and  economic 
tendencies  the  individual  merges  into  the 
group;  the  group  into  the  community;  the 
community  into  a  new  society.  In  this  clear 
perspective  of  historic  development  the  spec- 
tacular hero  at  first  sight  seems  to  diminish; 


INTRODUCTION 

but  the  mass,  the  movement,  the  social  force 
which  he  epitomizes  and  interprets,  gain  in  im- 
pressiveness  and  dignity.^ 

As  the  irresistible  tide  of  migratory  peoples 
swept  ever  southward  and  westward,  seeking 
room  for  expansion  and  economic  independ- 
ence, a  series  of  frontiers  was  gradually  thrust 
out  toward  the  wilderness  in  successive  waves 
of  irregular  indentation.  The  true  leader  in 
this  westward  advance,  to  whom  less  than  his 
deserts  has  been  accorded  by  the  historian,  is 
the  drab  and  mercenary  trader  with  the  In- 
dians. The  story  of  his  enterprise  and  of  his 
adventures  begins  with  the  planting  of  Euro- 
pean civilization  upon  American  soil.  In  the 
mind  of  the  aborigines  he  created  the  passion 
for  the  fruits,  both  good  and  evil,  of  the  white 
man's  civilization,  and  he  was  welcomed  by  the 
Indian  because  he  also  brought  the  means  for 
repelling  the  further  advance  of  that  civiliza- 
tion. The  trader  was  of  incalculable  service 
to  the  pioneer  in  first  spying  out  the  land  and 
charting  the  trackless  wilderness.  The  trail 
rudely  marked  by  the  buffalo  became  in  time 

xi 


INTRODUCTION 

the  Indian  path  and  the  trader's  "trace";  and 
the  pioneers  upon  the  westward  march,  follow- 
ing the  line  of  least  resistance,  cut  out  their 
roads  along  these  very  routes.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  say  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  trader 
— brave,  hardy,  and  adventurous  however 
often  crafty,  unscrupulous,  and  immoral — the 
expansionist  movement  upon  the  American 
continent  would  have  been  greatly  retarded. 

So  scattered  and  ramified  were  the  enter- 
prises and  expeditions  of  the  traders  with  the 
Indians  that  the  frontier  which  they  established 
was  at  best  both  shifting  and  unstable.  Fol- 
lowing far  in  the  wake  of  these  advance  agents 
of  the  civilization  which  they  so  often  dis- 
graced, came  the  cattle-herder  or  rancher,  who 
took  advantage  of  the  extensive  pastures  and 
ranges  along  the  uplands  and  foot-hills  to  raise 
immense  herds  of  cattle.  Thus  was  formed 
what  might  be  called  a  rancher's  frontier, 
thrust  out  in  advance  of  the  ordinary  farming 
settlements  and  serving  as  the  first  serious  bar- 
rier against  the  Indian  invasion.  The  west- 
ward movement  of  population  is  in  this  respect 

xii 


INTRODUCTION 

a  direct  advance  from  the  coast.  Years  before 
the  influx  into  the  Old  Southwest  of  the  tides 
of  settlement  from  the  northeast,  the  more  ad- 
venturous struck  straight  westward  in  the 
wake  of  the  fur-trader,  and  here  and  there 
erected  the  cattle-ranges  beyond  the  farming 
frontier  of  the  piedmont  region.  The  wild 
horses  and  cattle  which  roamed  at  will  through 
the  upland  barrens  and  pea-vine  pastures  were 
herded  in  and  driven  for  sale  to  the  city  mar- 
kets of  the  East. 

The  farming  frontier  of  the  piedmont  pla- 
teau constituted  the  real  backbone  of  western 
settlement.  The  pioneering  farmers,  with  the 
adventurous  instincts  of  the  hunter  and  the 
explorer,  plunged  deeper  and  ever  deeper  into 
the  wilderness,  lured  on  by  the  prospect  of 
free  and  still  richer  lands  in  the  dim  interior. 
Settlements  quickly  sprang  up  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  military  posts  or  rude  forts  established 
to  serve  as  safeguards  against  hostile  attack; 
and  trade  soon  flourished  between  these  settle- 
ments and  the  eastern  centers,  following  the 
trails  of  the  trader  and  the  more  beaten  paths 

xiii 


INTRODUCTION 

of  emigration.  The  bolder  settlers  who  ven- 
tured farthest  to  the  westward  were  held  in 
communication  with  the  East  through  their 
dependence  upon  salt  and  other  necessities  of 
life;  and  the  search  for  salt-springs  in  the 
virgin  wilderness  was  an  inevitable  conse- 
quence of  the  desire  of  the  pioneer  to  shake 
off  his  dependence  upon  the  coast. 

The  prime  determinative  principle  of  the 
progressive  American  civilization  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  was  the  passion  for  the  acquisi- 
tion of  land.  The  struggle  for  economic  in- 
dependence developed  the  germ  of  American 
liberty  and  became  the  differentiating  principle 
of  American  character.  Here  was  a  vast  un- 
appropriated region  in  the  interior  of  the  con- 
tinent to  be  had  for  the  seeking,  which  served 
as  lure  and  inspiration  to  the  man  daring 
enough  to  risk  his  all  in  its  acquisition.  It 
was  in  accordance  with  human  nature  and  the 
principles  of  political  economy  that  this  un- 
known extent  of  uninhabited  transmontane 
land,  widely  renowned  for  beauty,  richness, 
and  fertility,  should  excite  grandiose  dreams 

xiv 


INTRODUCTION 

in  the  minds  of  English  and  Colonials  alike. 
England  was  said  to  be  "New  Land  mad  and 
everybody  there  has  his  eye  fixed  on  this  coun- 
try." ^  Groups  of  wealthy  or  well-to-do  in- 
dividuals organized  themselves  into  land  com- 
panies for  the  colonization  and  exploitation  of 
the  West.  The  pioneer  promoter  was  a  pow- 
erful creative  force  in  westward  expansion; 
and  the  activities  of  the  early  land  companies 
were  decisive  factors  in  the  colonization  of  the 
wilderness.  Whether  acting  under  the  au- 
thority of  a  crown  grant  or  proceeding  on  their 
own  authority,  the  land  companies  tended  to 
give  stability  and  permanence  to  settlements 
otherwise  hazardous  and  insecure. 

The  second  determinative  impulse  of  the 
pioneer  civilization  was  wanderlust — the  pas- 
sionately inquisitive  instinct  of  the  hunter,  the 
traveler,  and  the  explorer.  This  restless  class 
of  nomadic  wanderers  was  responsible  in  part 
for  the  royal  proclamation  of  1763,  a  second- 
ary object  of  which,  according  to  Edmund 
Burke,  was  the  limitation  of  the  colonies  on 
the  West,  as  "the  charters  of  many  of  our  old 

XV 


INTRODUCTION 

colonies  give  them,  with  few  exceptions,  no 
bounds  to  the  westward  but  the  South  Sea." 
The  Long  Hunters,  taking  their  lives  in  their 
hands,  fared  boldly  forth  to  a  fabled  hunter's 
paradise  in  the  far-away  wilderness,  because 
they  were  driven  by  the  irresistible  desire  of  a 
Ponce  de  Leon  or  a  De  Soto  to  find  out  the 
truth  about  the  unknown  lands  beyond. 

But  the  hunter  was  not  only  thrilled  with 
the  passion  of  the  chase  and  of  discovery;  he 
was  intent  also  upon  collecting  the  furs  and 
skins  of  wild  animals  for  lucrative  barter  and 
sale  in  the  centers  of  trade.  He  was  quick 
to  make  "tomahawk  claims"  and  to  assert 
"corn  rights"  as  he  spied  out  the  rich  virgin 
land  for  future  location  and  cultivation.  Free 
land  and  no  taxes  appealed  to  the  backwoods- 
man, tired  of  paying  quit-rents  to  the  agents 
of  wealthy  lords  across  the  sea.  Thus  the 
settler  speedily  followed  in  the  hunter's  wake. 
In  his  wake  also  went  many  rude  and  lawless 
characters  of  the  border,  horse  thieves  and 
criminals  of  different  sorts,  who  sought  to  hide 
their  dehnquencies  in  the  merciful  liberality 

xvi 


INTRODUCTION 

of  the  wilderness.  For  the  most  part,  how- 
ever, it  was  the  salutary  instinct  of  the  home- 
builder — the  man  with  the  ax,  who  made  a 
little  clearing  in  the  forest  and  built  there  a 
rude  cabin  that  he  bravely  defended  at  all  risks 
against  continued  assaults — which,  in  defiance 
of  every  restraint,  irresistibly  thrust  westward 
the  thin  and  jagged  line  of  the  frontier.  The 
ax  and  the  surveyor's  chain,  along  with  the 
rifle  and  the  hunting-knife,  constituted  the 
armorial  bearings  of  the  pioneer.  With  in- 
dividual as  with  corporation,  with  explorer  as 
with  landlord,  land-hunger  was  the  master 
impulse  of  the  era. 

The  various  desires  which  stimulated  and 
promoted  westward  expansion  were,  to  be  sure, 
often  found  in  complete  conjunction.  The 
trader  sought  to  exploit  the  Indian  for  his  own 
advantage,  selling  him  whisky,  trinkets,  and 
firearms  in  return  for  rich  furs  and  costly  pel- 
tries; yet  he  was  often  a  hunter  himself  and 
collected  great  stores  of  peltries  as  the  result 
of  his  solitary  and  protracted  hunting-expedi- 
tions.    The  rancher  and  the  herder  sought  to 

xvii 


INTRODUCTION 

exploit  the  natural  vegetation  of  marsh  and 
upland,  the  cane-brakes  and  pea- vines;  yet 
the  constantly  recurring  need  for  fresh  pas- 
turage made  him  a  pioneer  also,  drove  him 
ever  nearer  to  the  mountains,  and  furnished 
the  economic  motive  for  his  westward  advance. 
The  small  farmer  needed  the  virgin  soil  of  the 
new  region,  the  alluvial  river-bottoms,  and  the 
open  prairies,  for  the  cultivation  of  his  crops 
and  the  grazing  of  his  cattle;  yet  in  the  inter- 
vals between  the  tasks  of  farm  life  he  scoured 
the  wilderness  in  search  of  game  and  spied 
out  new  lands  for  future  settlement. 

This  restless  and  nomadic  race,  says  the 
keenly  observant  Francis  Baily,  "delight  much 
to  live  on  the  frontiers,  where  they  can  enjoy 
undisturbed,  and  free  from  the  control  of  any 
laws,  the  blessings  which  nature  has  bestowed 
upon  them."  ^  Independence  of  spirit,  impa- 
tience of  restraint,  the  inquisitive  nature, 
and  the  nomadic  temperament — these  are  the 
strains  in  the  American  character  of  the 
eighteenth  century  which  ultimately  blended 
to  create  a  typical  democracy.     The  rolling 

xviii 


INTRODUCTION 

of  wave  after  wave  of  settlement  westward 
across  the  American  continent,  with  a  rever- 
sion to  primitive  conditions  along  the  line  of 
the  farthest  frontier,  and  a  marked  rise  in 
the  scale  of  civilization  at  each  successive 
stage  of  settlement,  from  the  western  limit 
to  the  eastern  coast,  exemplifies  from  one 
aspect  the  history  of  the  American  people 
dm'ing  two  centuries.*  This,  era,  constitut- 
ing the  first  stage  in  our  national  existence, 
and  productive  of  a  buoyant  national  char- 
acter shaped  in  democracy  upon  a  free  soil, 
closed  only  yesterday  with  the  exhaustion 
of  cultivable  free  land,  the  disappearance  of 
the  last  frontier,  and  the  recent  death  of 
"Buffalo  Bill."  The  splendid  inauguration  of 
the  period,  in  the  region  of  the  Carolinas,  Vir- 
ginia, Tennessee,  and  Kentucky,  during  the 
second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  is  the 
theme  of  this  story  of  the  pioneers  of  the  Old 
Southwest. 


XIX 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  VA0X 

Introduction ix 

1/ 1>  The  Migration  of  the  Peoples  .      .        3 


7. 


[I     The  Cradle  of  Westward  Expansion  19 

III^The  Back  Country  and  the  Border  32 

t/lV  The  Indian  War 49 

In  Defense  of  Civilization     ...  64 

'^l     Crushing  the  Cherokees  ....  78 

VII     The  Land  Companies 96 

VIII     The  Long  Hunters  in  the  Twilight 

Zone 116 

IX     Daniel  Boone  and  Wilderness  Ex- 
ploration        130 

X     Daniel  Boone  in  Kentucky  .      .      .    144 

XI     The  Regulators 160 

XII     Watauga — Haven  of  Liberty     ,      .    175 

XIII     Opening    the    Gateway — ^Dunmore's 

War 196 

xxi 


CONTENTS 

XIV     Richard  Henderson  and  the  Tran- 
sylvania Company 216 

XV     Transylvania — A   Wilderness    Com- 
monwealth     237 

XVI     The  Repulse  of  the  Red  Men     .      .    252 

XVII     The   Colonization  of  the   Cumber- 
land     269 

XVIII     King's  Mountain 289 

XIX     The  State  of  Franklin    ....    306 

XX     The  Lure  of  Spain — The  Haven  of 

Statehood 327 

List  of  Notes 351 

Bibliographical  Notes     ....   363 

Index 371 


/ 


xxn 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Richard  Henderson Frontispiece 

rACINQ 
PAGE 

Col.  Daniel  Boone 36 

Fort  Dobbs 36 

The  Transylvania  Fort  at  Boonesborough  .      .      66 

The  Right  Honorable  Archibald,  Earl  of  Eglin- 
town,  Lord  Montgomery  Kilvinning  (1726- 
1796) 88 

Colonel  James  Grant  (1720-1806)   ....      92 

Arthur  Dobbs,  Governor  of  North  Carolina     .    132 

General  Hugh  Waddell 132 

Title-Page  of  Herman  Husband's  Impartial  Re- 
lation, etc 178 

Alexander  Martin,  Governor  of  North  Carolina  182 

General  William  Lenoir 182 

Jame^  Robertson 188 

The  Old  Southwest,  1740-1790       ....   192 

Daniel  Boone  Leading  Colonists  for  Kentucky 

—1773 202 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

rACINQ 
PAGE 

John  Murray,  Earl  of  Dunmore       ....   210 

Advertisement  of  the  Transylvania  Company  .    220 

First  Page  of  Richard  Henderson's  Diary   .      .    226 

Lord    Dunmore's    Proclamation    Against    the 
Transylvania  Company 240 

The  Capture  of  Jemima  Boone  and  the  Calla- 
away  Girls  by  the  Indians 270 

Isaac  Shelby 302 

Title  Page    of   Proposed   Constitution   of   the 
State  of  Frankland 320 

John  Sevier  (1745-1815) 328 


XXIV 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD 
SOUTHWEST 


I 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD 
SOUTHWEST 

CHAPTER  I 

THE   MIGRATION   OF  THE   PEOPLES 

Inhabitants  flock  in  here  daily,  mostly  from  Pensilvania  and 
other  parts  of  America,  who  are  over-stocked  with  people  and 
some  directly  from  Europe,  they  commonly  seat  themselves 
towards  the  West,  and  have  got  near  the  mountains. 

— Gabhiel  Johnston,  Governor  of  North  Carolina, 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trade, 
February  15,  1751. 

AT  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century 
the  tide  of  population  had  swept  inland 
to  the  "fall  line,"  the  westward  boundary  of 
the  established  settlements.  The  actual  fron- 
tier had  been  advanced  by  the  more  aggres- 
sive pioneers  to  within  fifty  miles  of  the  Blue 
Ridge.  So  rapid  was  the  settlement  in  North 
Carolina  that  in  the  interval  1717-32  the  popu- 
lation quadrupled  in  numbers.     A  map  of  the 

3 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

colonial  settlements  in  1725  reveals  a  narrow 
strip  of  populated  land  along  the  Atlantic 
coast,  of  irregular  indentation,  with  occasional 
isolated  nuclei  of  settlements  further  in  the  in- 
terior. The  civilization  thus  established  con- 
tinued to  maintain  a  close  and  unbroken  com- 
munication with  England  and  the  Continent. 
As  long  as  the  settlers,  for  economic  reasons, 
clung  to  the  coast,  they  reacted  but  slowly  to 
the  transforming  influences  of  the  frontier. 
Within  a  triangle  of  continental  altitude  with 
its  apex  in  New  England,  bounded  on  the 
east  by  the  Atlantic,  and  on  the  west  by  the 
Appalachian  range,  lay  the  settlements,  di- 
vided into  two  zones — tidewater  and  piedmont. 
As  no  break  occurred  in  the  great  mountain 
system  south  of  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  val- 
leys, the  difliculties  of  cutting  a  passage 
through  the  towering  wall  of  living  green  long 
proved  an  effective  obstacle  to  the  crossing 
'  of  the  grim  mountain  barrier. 

In  the  beginning  the  settlements  gradually 
extended  westward  from  the  coast  in  irregular 
outline,  the  indentations  taking  form  around 


THE  MIGRATION  OF  THE  PEOPLES 

such  natural  centers  of  attraction  as  areas  of 
fertile  soil,  frontier  posts,  mines,  salt-springs, 
and  stretches  of  upland  favorable  for  grazing. 
After  a  time  a  second  advance  of  settlement 
was  begun  in  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and 
Maryland,  running  in  a  southwesterly  direc- 
tion along  the  broad  terraces  to  the  east  of 
the  Appalachian  Range,  which  in  North  Caro- 
lina lies  as  far  as  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
from  the  sea.  The  Blue  Ridge  in  Virginia 
and  a  belt  of  pine  barrens  in  North  Carohna 
were  hindrances  to  this  advance,  but  did  not 
entirely  check  it.  This  second  streaming  ofi 
the  population  thrust  into  the  long,  narrow] 
wedge  of  the  piedmont  zone  a  class  of  people 
differing  in  spirit  and  in  tendency  from  their 
more  aristocratic  and  complacent  neighbors  to 
the  east. 

These  settlers  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia 
and  the  North  Carohna  piedmont  region 
— Enghsh,  Scotch-Irish,  Germans,  Scotch, 
Irish,  Welsh,  and  a  few  French — were  the  first 
pioneers  of  the  Old  Southwest.  From  the 
joint  efforts  of  two  strata  of  population,  geo- 

6 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

graphically,  socially,  and  economically  distinct 
— tidewater  and  piedmont,  Old  South  and  New 
South — originated  and  flowered  the  third  and 
greatest  movement  of  westward  expansion, 
opening  with  the  surmounting  of  the  mountain 
barrier  and  ending  in  the  occupation  and  as- 
sumption of  the  vast  medial  valley  of  the  con- 
tinent. 

Synchronous  with  the  founding  of  James- 
town in  Virginia,  significantly  enough,  was 
the  first  planting  of  Ulster  with  the  English 
and  Scotch.  Emigrants  from  the  Scotch 
Lowlands,  sometimes  as  many  as  four  thou- 
sand a  year  (1625),  continued  throughout  the 
century  to  pour  into  Ulster.  "Those  of  the 
North  of  Ireland  .  .  .,"  as  pungently  de- 
scribed in  1679  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  Leo- 
line  Jenkins,  to  the  Duke  of  Ormond,  "are 
most  Scotch  and  Scotch  breed  and  are  the 
Northern  Presbyterians  and  phanatiques, 
lusty,  able-bodied,  hardy  and  stout  men,  where 
one  may  see  three  or  four  hundred  at  every 
meeting-house  on  Sunday,  and  all  the  North 
of  Ireland  is  inhabited  by  these,  which  is  the 

6 


THE  MIGRATION  OF  THE  PEOPLES 

popular  place  of  all  Ireland  by  far.  They  are 
very  numerous  and  greedy  after  land."  Dur- 
ing the  quarter  of  a  century  after  the  English 
Revolution  of  1688  and  the  Jacobite  uprising 
in  Ireland,  which  ended  in  1691  with  the  com- 
plete submission  of  Ireland  to  William  and 
Mary,  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  Scotch, 
according  to  Archbishop  Synge,  settled  in 
Ulster.  Until  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century  there  was  no  considerable  emigra- 
tion to  America;  and  it  was  first  set  up  as 
a  consequence  of  English  interference  with 
trade  and  religion.  Repressive  measures 
passed  by  the  English  parliament  (1665- 
1699),  prohibiting  the  exportation  from  Ire- 
land to  England  and  Scotland  of  cattle,  beef, 
pork,  dairy  products,  etc.,  and  to  any  country 
whatever  of  manufactured  wool,  had  aroused 
deep  resentment  among  the  Scotch-Irish,  who 
had  built  up  a  great  commerce.  This  discon- 
tent was  greatly  aggravated  by  the  imposition 
of  religious  disabilities  upon  the  Presbyterians, 
who,  in  addition  to  having  to  pay  tithes  for 
the  support  of  the  established  church,  were 

7 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

excluded  from  all  civil  and  military  office 
(1704),  while  their  ministers  were  made  liable 
to  penalties  for  celebrating  marriages. 

This  pressure  upon  a  high-spirited  people 
resulted  inevitably  in  an  exodus  to  the  New 
World.  The  principal  ports  by  which  the 
Ulsterites  entered  America  were  Lewes  and 
Newcastle  (Delaware),  Philadelphia  and  Bos- 
ton. The  streams  of  immigi*ation  steadily 
flowed  up  the  Delaware  Valley;  and  by  1720 
the  Scotch-Irish  began  to  arrive  in  Bucks 
County.  So  rapid  was  the  rate  of  increase  in 
immigration  that  the  number  of  arrivals  soon 
mounted  from  a  few  hundred  to  upward  of 
six  thousand,  in  a  single  year  (1729)  ;  and 
within  a  few  years  this  number  was  doubled. 
According  to  the  meticulous  Franklin,  the 
proportion  increased  from  a  very  small  ele- 
ment of  the  population  of  Pennsylvania  in 
1700  to  one  fourth  of  the  whole  in  1749,  and 
to  one  third  of  the  whole  (350,000)  in  1774. 
Writing  to  the  Penns  in  1724,  James  Logan, 
Secretary  of  the  Province,  caustically  refers 
to  the  Ulster  settlers  on  the  disputed  Mary- 

8 


THE  MIGRATION  OF  THE  PEOPLES 

land  line  as  "these  bold  and  indigent  strangers, 
saying  as  their  excuse  when  challenged  for 
titles,  that  we  had  solicited  for  colonists  and 
they  had  come  accordingly."  The  spirit  of 
these  defiant  squatters  is  succinctly  expressed 
in  their  statement  to  Logan  that  it  "was 
against  the  laws  of  God  and  nature  that  so 
much  land  should  be  idle  while  so  many  Chris- 
tians wanted  it  to  work  on  and  to  raise  their 
bread." 

The  rising  scale  of  prices  for  Pennsylvania 
lands,  changing  from  ten  pounds  and  two  shill- 
ings quit-rents  per  hundred  acres  in  1719  to 
fifteen  pounds  ten  shillings  per  hundred  acres 
with  a  quit-rent  of  a  halfpenny  per  acre  in 
1732,  soon  turned  the  eyes  of  the  thrifty 
Scotch-Irish  settlers  southward  and  south- 
westward.  In  Maryland  in  1738  lands  were 
offered  at  five  pounds  sterling  per  hundred 
acres.  Simultaneously,  in  the  Valley  of  Vir- 
ginia free  grants  of  a  thousand  acres  per  fam- 
ily were  being  made.  In  the  North  Carolina 
piedmont  region  the  proprietary.  Lord  Gran- 
ville, through  his  agents  was  disposing  of  the 

9 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

most  desirable  lands  to  settlers  at  the  rate  of 
three  shillings  proclamation  money  for  six  hun- 
dred and  forty  acres,  the  unit  of  land-division ; 
and  was  also  making  large  free  gi*ants  on  the 
condition  of  seating  a  certain  proportion  of  set- 
tlers. "Lord  Carteret's  land  in  Carolina," 
says  North  Carolina's  first  American  histo- 
rian, "where  the  soil  was  cheap,  presented  a 
tempting  residence  to  people  of  every  denom- 
ination. Emigrants  from  the  north  of  Ire- 
land, by  the  way  of  Pennsylvania,  flocked 
to  that  country;  and  a  considerable  part  of 
North  Carolina  ...  is  inliabited  by  those 
people  or  their  descendants."  ^  From  1740 
onward,  attracted  by  the  rich  lure  of  cheap 
and  even  free  lands  in  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina,  a  tide  of  immigration  swept  cease- 
lessly into  the  valleys  of  the  Shenandoah, 
the  Yadkin,  and  the  Catawba.  The  immen- 
sity of  this  mobile,  drifting  mass,  which  some- 
times brought  "more  than  400  families  with 
horse  waggons  and  cattle"  into  North  Carolina 
in  a  single  year  (1752-3),  is  attested  by  the 
fact  that  from  1732  to  1754,  mainly  as  the 

10 


THE  MIGRATION  OF  THE  PEOPLES 

result  of  the  Scotch-Irish  inundation,  the  pop- 
ulation of  North  Carolina  more  than  doubled. 

The  second  important  racial  stream  of  popu- 
lation in  the  settlement  of  the  same  region  was 
composed  of  Gemians,  attracted  to  this  coun- 
try from  the  Palatinate.  Lured  on  by  the 
highly  colored  stories  of  the  commercial  agents 
for  promoting  immigration — the  "newland- 
ers,"  who  were  thoroughly  unscrupulous  in 
their  methods  and  extravagant  in  their  repre- 
sentations— a  migration  from  Germany  began 
in  the  second  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century 
and  quickly  assumed  alarming  proportions. 
Although  certain  of  the  emigrants  were  well- 
to-do,  a  very  great  number  were  "redemp- 
tioners"  (indentured  servants),  who  in  order 
to  pay  for  their  transportation  were  compelled 
to  pledge  themselves  to  several  years  of  servi- 
tude. This  economic  condition  caused  the 
German  immigrant,  wherever  he  went,  to  be- 
come a  settler  of  the  back  country,  necessity 
compelling  him  to  pass  by  the  more  expensive 
lands  near  the  coast. 

For  well-nigh  sixty  years  the  influx  of  Ger- 
11 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

man  immigi-ants  of  various  sects  was  very- 
great,  averaging  something  like  fifteen  hun- 
dred a  year  into  Pennsylvania  alcne  from  1727 
to  1775.  Indeed,  Pennsylvania,  one  third  of 
whose  population  at  the  beginning  of  the  Revo- 
lution was  German,  early  became  the  great 
distributing  center  for  the  Germans  as  well 
as  for  the  Scotch-Irish.  Certainly  by  1727 
Adam  Miiller  and  his  fellow  Germans  had 
established  the  first  permanent  white  settle- 
ment in  the  Valley  of  Virginia.^  By  1732  Jost 
Heydt,  accompanied  by  sixteen  families,  came 
from  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  settled  on  the 
Opeckon  River,  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
present  Winchester.^  There  is  no  longer  any 
doubt  that  "the  portion  of  the  Shenandoah 
Valley  sloping  to  the  north  was  almost  en- 
tirely settled  by  Germans." 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  the  century  that 
these  pioneers  of  the  Old  Southwest,  the 
shrewd,  industrious,  and  thrifty  Pennsylvania 
Germans  (who  came  to  be  generally  called 
"Pennsylvania  Dutch"  from  the  incorrect 
translation  of  Pennsylvdnische  Deutsche) ,  be- 

12 


THE  MIGRATION  OF  THE  PEOPLES 

gan  to  pour  into  the  piedmont  region  of  North 
Carolina.  In  the  autumn,  after  the  harvest 
was  in,  these  ambitious  Pennsylvania  pioneers 
would  pack  up  their  belongings  in  wagons  and 
on  beasts  of  burden  and  head  for  the  south- 
west, trekking  down  in  the  manner  of  the 
Boers  of  South  Africa.  This  movement  into 
the  fertile  valley  lands  of  the  Yadkin  and  the 
Catawba  continued  unabated  throughout  the 
entire  third  quarter  of  the  century.  Owing  to 
their  unfamiliarity  with  the  English  language 
and  the  solidarity  of  their  instincts,  the  Ger- 
man settlers  at  first  had  little  share  in  govern- 
ment. But  they  devotedly  played  their  part 
in  the  defense  of  the  exposed  settlements  and 
often  bore  the  brunt  of  Indian  attack.^ 

The  bravery  and  hardihood  displayed  by  the 
itinerant  missionaries  sent  out  by  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Synod  under  the  direction  of  Count 
Zinzendorf  (1742-8),  and  by  the  Moravian 
Church  (1748-53) ,  are  mirrored  in  the  numer- 
ous diaries,  written  in  German,  happily  pre- 
served to  posterity  in  religious  archives  of 
Pennsylvania    and    North    Carolina.     These 

IS 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

simple,  earnest  crusaders,  animated  by  pure 
and  unselfish  motives,  would  visit  on  a  single 
tour  of  a  thousand  miles  the  principal  German 
settlements  in  Maryland  and  Virginia  ( includ- 
ing the  present  West  Virginia) .  Sometimes 
they  would  make  an  extended  circuit  through 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and  even 
Georgia,  everywhere  bearing  witness  to  the 
truth  of  the  gospel  and  seeking  to  carry  the 
most  elemental  forms  of  the  Christian  religion, 
preaching  and  prayer,  to  the  primitive  fron- 
tiersmen marooned  along  the  outer  fringe  of 
white  settlements.  These  arduous  journeys  in 
the  cause  of  piety  place  this  type  of  pioneer 
of  the  Old  Southwest  in  alleviating  contrast 
to  the  often  relentless  and  bloodthirsty  figure 
of  the  rude  borderer. 

Noteworthy  among  these  pious  pilgrimages 
is  the  Virginia  journey  of  Brothers  Leonhard 
Schnell  and  John  Brandmiiller  (October  12 
to  December  12,  1749).^  At  the  last  outpost 
of  civilization,  the  scattered  settlements  in  Bath 
and  Alleghany  counties,  these  courageous  mis- 
sionaries— feasting  the  while  solely  on  bear 

14 


THE  MIGRATION  OF  THE  PEOPLES 

meat,  for  there  was  no  bread — encountered 
conditions  of  almost  primitive  savagery,  of 
which  they  give  this  graphic  picture:  "Then 
we  came  to  a  house,  where  we  had  to  lie  on 
bear  skins  around  the  fire  like  the  rest.  .  .  . 
The  clothes  of  the  people  consist  of  deer  skins, 
their  food  of  Johnny  cakes,  deer  and  bear 
meat.  A  kind  of  white  people  are  found  here, 
who  live  like  savages.  Hunting  is  their  chief 
occupation."  Into  the  valley  of  the  Yadkin 
in  December,  1752,  came  Bishop  Spangenberg 
and  a  party  of  Moravians,  accompanied  by  a 
surveyor  and  two  guides,  for  the  purpose  of 
locating  the  one  hundred  thousand  acres  of 
land  which  had  been  offered  them  on  easy  terms 
the  preceding  year  by  Lord  Granville.  This 
journey  was  remarkable  as  an  illustration  of 
sacrifices  willingly  made  and  extreme  hard- 
ships uncomplainingly  endured  for  the  sake  of 
the  Moravian  brotherhood.  In  the  back  coun- 
try of  North  Carolina  near  the  Mulberry 
Fields  they  found  the  whole  woods  full  of 
Cherokee  Indians  engaged  in  hunting.  A 
beautiful  site  for  the  projected  settlement  met 

15 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

their  delighted  gaze  at  this  place ;  but  they  soon 
learned  to  their  regret  that  it  had  already  been 
"taken  up"  by  Daniel  Boone's  future  father- 
in-law,  Morgan  Bryan. 

On  October  8,  1753,  a  party  of  twelve  single 
men  headed  by  the  Rev.  Bernhard  Adam 
Grube,  set  out  from  Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania, 
to  trek  down  to  the  new-found  haven  in  the 
Carolina  hinterland — "a  corner  which  the 
Lord  has  reserved  for  the  Brethren" — in  An- 
son County.^^  Following  for  the  most  part 
the  great  highway  extending  from  Philadel- 
phia to  the  Yadkin,  over  which  passed  the 
great  throng  sweeping  into  the  back  country 
of  North  Carolina — through  the  Valley  of 
Virginia  and  past  Robert  Luhny's  mill  on  the 
James  River — they  encountered  many  hard- 
ships along  the  way.  Because  of  their  "long- 
wagon,"  they  had  much  difficulty  in  crossing 
one  steep  mountain;  and  of  this  experience 
Brother  Grube,  with  a  touch  of  modest  pride, 
observes:  "People  had  told  us  that  this  hill 
was  most  dangerous,  and  that  we  would 
scarcely  be  able  to  cross  it,  for  Morgan  Bryan, 

16 


THE  MIGRATION  OF  THE  PEOPLES 

the  first  to  travel  this  way,  had  to  take  the 
wheels  off  his  wagon  and  carry  it  piecemeal 
to  the  top,  and  had  been  three  months  on  the 
journey  from  the  Shanidore  [Shenandoah]  to 
the  Etkin  [Yadkin]." 

These  men  were  the  highest  type  of  the  pio- 
neers of  the  Old  Southwest,  inspired  with  the 
instinct  of  home-makers  in  a  land  where,  if  idle 
rumor  were  to  be  credited,  "the  people  lived 
like  wild  men,  never  hearing  of  God  or  His 
Word."  In  one  hand  they  bore  the  implement 
of  agriculture,  in  the  other  the  book  of  the  gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ.  True  faith  shines  forth  in 
the  simply  eloquent  words:  "We  thanked  our 
Saviour  that  he  had  so  graciously  led  us  hither, 
and  had  helped  us  through  all  the  hard  places, 
for  no  matter  how  dangerous  it  looked,  nor 
how  little  we  saw  how  we  could  win  through, 
everything  always  went  better  than  seemed 
possible."  The  promise  of  a  new  day — the 
dawn  of  the  heroic  age — rings  out  in  the  pious 
carol  of  camaraderie  at  their  journey's  end: 

We  hold  arrival  Lovefeast  here, 
In  Carolina  land, 
17 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

A  company  of  Brethren  true, 

A   little  Pilgrim-Band, 
Called  by  the  Lord  to  be  of  those 

Who  through  the  whole  world  go, 
To  bear  Him  witness  everywhere, 

And  nought  but  Jesus  know. 


18 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   CRADLE   OF   WESTWARD   EXPANSION 

In  the  year  1746  I  was  up  in  the  country  that  is  now  Anson, 
Orange  and  Rowan  Counties,  there  was  not  then  above  one 
hundred  fighting  men  there  is  now  at  least  three  thousand  for 
the  most  part  Irish  Protestants  and  Germans  and  dailey 
increasing. 

— Matthew  Rowan,  President  of  the  North  Caro- 
lina Council,  to  the  Board  of  Trade,  June  28, 
1753. 

THE  conquest  of  the  West  is  usually  at- 
tributed to  the  ready  initiative,  the  stern 
self-reliance,  and  the  libertarian  instinct  of  the 
expert  backwoodsmen.  These  bold,  nomadic 
spirits  were  animated  by  an  unquenchable  de- 
sire to  plunge  into  the  wilderness  in  search  of 
an  El  Dorado  at  the  outer  verge  of  civilization, 
free  of  taxation,  quit-rents,  and  the  law's  re- 
straint. They  longed  to  build  homes  for  them- 
selves and  their  descendants  in  a  limitless,  free 
domain;  or  else  to  fare  deeper  and  deeper  into 
the  trackless  forests  in  search  of  adventure. 

19 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Yet  one  must  not  overlook  the  fact  that  behind 
Boone  and  pioneers  of  his  stamp  were  men  of 
conspicuous  civil  and  mihtary  genius,  construc- 
tive in  purpose  and  creative  in  imagination, 
who  devoted  their  best  gifts  to  actual  conquest 
and  colonization.  These  men  of  large  intel- 
lectual mold — themselves  surveyors,  hunters, 
and  pioneers — were  inspired  with  the  larger 
vision  of  the  expansionist.  Whether  colo- 
nizers, soldiers,  or  speculators  on  the  grand 
scale,  they  sought  to  open  at  one  great  stroke 
the  vast  trans-AUeghany  regions  as  a  peaceful 
abode  for  mankind. 

Two  distinct  classes  of  society  were  grad- 
ually drawing  apart  from  each  other  in  North 
Carolina  and  later  in  Virginia — the  pioneer 
democracy  of  the  back  country  and  the  upland, 
and  the  planter  aristocracy  of  the  lowland  and 
the  tide-water  region.  From  the  frontier  came 
the  pioneer  explorers  whose  individual  enter- 
prise and  initiative  were  such  potent  factors  in 
the  exploitation  of  the  wilderness.  From  the 
border  counties  still  in  contact  with  the  E^st 
came  a  number  of  leaders.     Thus  in  the  heart 

20 


THE  CRADLE  OF  WESTWARD  EXPANSION 

of  the  Old  Southwest  the  two  determinative 
principles  already  referred  to,  the  inquisitive 
and  the  acquisitive  instincts,  found  a  fortunate 
conjunction.  The  exploratory  passion  of  the 
pioneer,  directed  in  the  interest  of  commercial 
enterprise,  prepared  the  way  for  the  great 
westward  migi-ation.  The  warlike  disposition 
of  the  hardy  backwoodsman,  controlled  by  the 
exercise  of  military  strategy,  accomplished  the 
conquest  of  the  trans-Alleghany  country. 

Fleeing  from  the  traditional  bonds  of  caste 
and  aristocracy  in  England  and  Europe,  from 
economic  boycott  and  civil  oppression,  from  re- 
ligious persecution  and  favoritism,  many 
worthy- members  of  society  in  the  first  quarter 
of  the  eighteenth  century  sought  a  haven  of 
refuge  in  the  "Quackerthal"  of  William  Penn, 
with  its  trustworthy  guarantees  of  free  toler- 
ance in  religious  faith  and  the  benefits  of  repre- 
sentative self-government.  From  East  Dev- 
onshire in  England  came  George  Boone,  the 
grandfather  of  the  great  pioneer,  and  from 
Wales  came  Edward  Morgan,  whose  daughter 
Sarah    became   the   wife    of    Squire   Boone, 

SI 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Daniel's  father.  These  were  conspicuous  rep- 
resentatives of  the  Society  of  Friends,  drawn 
thither  by  the  roseate  representations  of  the 
great  Quaker,  William  Penn,  and  by  his  ad- 
vanced views  on  popular  government  and  re- 
ligious toleration/^  Hither,  too,  from  Ireland, 
whither  he  had  gone  from  Denmark,  came 
Morgan  Bryan,  settling  in  Chester  County, 
prior  to  1719;  and  his  children,  William,  Jo- 
seph, James,  and  Morgan,  who  more  than  half 
a  century  later  gave  the  name  to  Bryan's  Sta- 
tion in  Kentucky,  were  destined  to  play  im- 
portant roles  in  the  drama  of  westward  migra- 
tion/^ In  September,  1734,  Michael  Finley 
from  County  Armagh,  Ireland,  presumably 
accompanied  by  his  brother  Archibald  Finley, 
settled  in  Bucks  County,  Pennsylvania.  Ac- 
cording to  the  best  authorities,  Archibald  Fin- 
ley was  the  father  of  John  Finley,  or  Findlay  as 
he  signed  himself,  Boone's  guide  and  compan- 
ion in  his  exploration  of  Kentucky  in  1769- 
71.^^  To  Pennsylvania  also  came  Mordecai 
Lincoln,  great-grandson  of  Samuel  Lincoln, 
who  had  emigrated  from  England  to  Hingham, 


THE  CRADLE  OF  WESTWARD  EXPANSION 

Massachusetts,  as  early  as  1637.  This  Mor- 
decai  Lincoln,  who  in  1720  settled  in  Chester 
County,  Pennsylvania,  the  gi-eat -great-grand- 
father of  President  Lincoln,  was  the  father 
of  Sarah  Lincoln,  who  was  wedded  to  William 
Boone,  and  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  married 
Anne  Boone,  William's  first  cousin.  Early 
settlers  in  Pennsylvania  were  members  of  the 
Hanks  family,  one  of  whom  was  the  maternal 
grandfather  of  President  Lincoln.^'' 

No  one  race  or  breed  of  men  can  lay  claim 
to  exclusive  credit  for  leadership  in  the  hinter- 
land movement  and  the  conquest  of  the  West. 
Yet  one  particular  stock  of  people,  the  Ulster 
Scots,  exhibited  with  most  completeness  and 
picturesqueness  a  group  of  conspicuous  quali- 
ties and  attitudes  which  we  now  recognize  to 
be  typical  of  the  American  character  as  molded 
by  the  conditions  of  frontier  life.  Cautious, 
wary,  and  reserved,  these  Scots  concealed  be- 
neath a  cool  and  calculating  manner  a  relent- 
lessness  in  reasoning  power  and  an  intensity 
of  conviction  which  glowed  and  burned  with 
almost  fanatical  ardor.     Strict  in  religious  ob- 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

servance  and  deep  in  spiritual  fervor,  they 
never  lost  sight  of  the  main  chance,  combining 
a  shrewd  practicality  with  a  wealth  of  devo- 
tion. It  has  been  happily  said  of  them  that 
they  kept  the  Sabbath  and  everything  else  they 
could  lay  their  hands  on.  In  the  polity  of 
these  men  religion  and  education  went  hand 
in  hand;  and  they  habitually  settled  together 
in  communities  in  order  that  they  might  have 
teachers  and  preachers  of  their  own  choice  and 
persuasion. 

In  little-known  letters  and  diaries  of  trav- 
elers and  itinerant  ministers  may  be  found 
many  quaint  descriptions  and  faithful  char- 
acterizations of  the  frontier  settlers  in  their 
habits  of  life  and  of  the  scenes  amidst  which 
they  labored.  In  a  letter  to  Edmund  Fan- 
ning, the  cultured  Robin  Jones,  agent  of  Lord 
Granville  and  Attorney-General  of  North 
Carolina,  summons  to  view  a  piquant  image 
of  the  western  border  and  borderers:  "The 
inhabitants  are  hospitable  in  their  way,  live  in 
plenty  and  dirt,  are  stout,  of  great  prowess  in 
manly  athletics;  and,  in  private  conversation, 

9A 


THE  CRADLE  OF  WESTWARD  EXPANSION 

bold,  impertinent,  and  vain.  In  the  art  of 
war  (after  the  Indian  manner)  they  are  well- 
skilled,  are  enterprising  and  fruitful  of  strate- 
gies; and,  when  in  action,  are  as  bold  and  in- 
trepid as  the  ancient  Romans.  The  Shawnese 
acknowledge  them  their  superiors  even  in  their 
own  way  of  fighting.  .  .  .  [The  land]  may 
be  truly  called  the  land  of  the  mountains,  for 
they  are  so  numerous  that  when  you  have 
reached  the  summit  of  one  of  them,  you  may 
see  thousands  of  every  shape  that  the  imagi- 
nation can  suggest,  seeming  to  vie  with  each 
other  which  should  raise  his  lofty  head  to  touch 
the  clouds.  ...  It  seems  to  me  that  nature 
has  been  wanton  in  bestowing  her  blessings  on 
that  country."  ^^ 

An  excellent  pen-picture  of  educational  and 
cultural  conditions  in  the  backwoods  of  North 
Carolina,  by  one  of  the  early  settlers  in  the 
middle  of  the  century,  exhibits  in  all  their  bar- 
ren cheer lessness  the  hardships  and  limitations 
of  life  in  the  wilderness.  The  father  of  Wil- 
liam Few,  the  narrator,  had  trekked  down  from 
Maryland  and  settled  in  Orange  County,  some 

25 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

miles  east  of  the  little  hamlet  of  Hillsborough. 
*'In  that  country  at  that  time  there  were  no 
schools,  no  churches  or  parsons,  or  doctors  or 
lawyers;  no  stores,  groceries  or  taverns,  nor 
do  I  recollect  during  the  first  two  years  any 
officer,  ecclesiastical,  civil  or  military,  except  a 
justice  of  the  peace,  a  constable  and  two  or 
three  itinerant  preachers.  .  .  .  These  people 
had  few  wants,  and  fewer  temptations  to  vice 
than  those  who  lived  in  more  refined  society, 
though  ignorant.  They  were  more  virtuous 
and  more  happy.  ...  A  schoolmaster  ap- 
peared and  offered  his  services  to  teach  the 
children  of  the  neighborhood  for  twenty  shill- 
ings each  per  year.  ...  In  that  simple  state 
of  society  money  was  but  little  known;  the 
schoolmaster  was  the  welcome  guest  of  his 
pupil,  fed  at  the  bountiful  table  and  clothed 
from  the  domestic  loom.  ...  In  that  country 
at  that  time  there  was  great  scarcity  of 
books."  '' 

The  journals  of  itinerant  ministers  through 
the  Valley  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolina  pied- 
mont zone  yield  precious  mementoes  of  the 

26 


THE  CRADLE  OF  WESTWARD  EXPANSION 

people,  their  longing  after  the  things  of  the 
spirit,  and  their  pitiful  isolation  from  the  regu- 
lar preaching  of  the  gospel.  These  mission- 
aries were  true  pioneers  in  this  Old  Southwest, 
ardent,  dauntless,  and  heroic — carrying  the 
word  into  remote  places  and  preaching  the  gos- 
pel beneath  the  trees  of  the  forest.  In  his 
journal  (1755-6),  the  Rev.  Hugh  McAden, 
born  in  Pennsylvania  of  Scotch-Irish  paren- 
tage, a  graduate  of  Nassau  Hall  (1753), 
makes  the  unconsciously  humorous  observation 
that  wherever  he  found  Presbyterians  he  found 
people  who  "seemed  highly  pleased,  and  very 
desirous  to  hear  the  word" ;  whilst  elsewhere  he 
found  either  dissension  and  defection  to  Bap- 
tist principles,  or  "no  appearance  of  the  life 
of  religion."  In  the  Scotch-Irish  Presbyte- 
rian settlements  in  what  is  now  Mecklenburg 
County,  the  cradle  of  American  liberty,  he 
found  "pretty  serious,  judicious  people"  of  the 
stamp  of  Moses,  William,  and  James  Alex- 
ander. While  traveling  in  the  upper  country 
of  South  Carolina,  he  relates  with  gusto  the 
story  of  "an  old  gentleman  who  said  to  the 

a? 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Governor  of  South  Carolina,  when  he  was  in 
those  parts,  in  treaty  with  the  Cherokee  In- 
dians that  'he  had  never  seen  a  shirt,  been  in 
a  fair,  heard  a  sermon,  or  seen  a  minister  in  all 
his  life.'  Upon  which  the  governor  promised 
to  send  him  up  a  minister,  that  he  might  hear 
one  sermon  before  he  died."  The  minister 
came  and  preached;  and  this  was  all  the 
preaching  that  had  been  heard  in  the  upper 
part  of  South  Carolina  before  Mr.  McAden's 
visit.^^ 

Such,  then,  were  the  rude  and  simple  people 
in  the  back  country  of  the  Old  Southwest — 
the  deliberate  and  self-controlled  English,  the 
aggressive,  land-mongering  Scotch-Irish,  the 
buoyant  Welsh,  the  thrifty  Germans,  the  debo- 
nair French,  the  impetuous  Irish,  and  the  cal- 
culating Scotch.  The  lives  they  led  were 
marked  by  independence  of  spirit,  democratic 
instincts,  and  a  forthright  simplicity.  In  de- 
scribing the  condition  of  the  English  settlers  in 
the  backwoods  of  Virginia,  one  of  their  num- 
ber, Doddridge,  says:  "Most  of  the  articles 
were  of  domestic  manufacture.     There  might 

28 


THE  CRADLE  OF  WESTWARD  EXPANSION 

have  been  incidentally  a  few  things  brought 
to  the  country  for  sale  in  a  primitive  way,  but 
there  was  no  store  for  general  supply.  The 
table  furniture  usually  consisted  of  wooden 
vessels,  either  turned  or  coopered.  Iron  forks, 
tin  cups,  etc.,  were  articles  of  rare  and  deli- 
cate luxury.  The  food  was  of  the  most  whole- 
some and  primitive  kind.  The  richest  meat, 
the  finest  butter,  and  best  meal  that  ever  de- 
hghted  man's  palate  were  here  eaten  with  a 
relish  which  health  and  labor  only  know.  The 
hospitality  of  the  people  was  profuse  and  pro- 
verbial." /\ 

The  circumstances  of  their  lives  compelled 
the  pioneers  to  become  self-sustaining.  Every 
immigrant  was  an  adept  at  many  trades.  He 
built  his  own  house,  forged  his  own  tools,  and 
made  his  own  clothes.  At  a  very  early  date 
rifles  were  manufactured  at  the  High  Shoals 
of  the  Yadkin;  Squire  Boone,  Daniel's  brother, 
was  an  expert  gunsmith.  The  difficulty  of 
securing  food  for  the  settlements  forced  every 
man  to  become  a  hunter  and  to  scour  the  for- 
est for  wild  game.     Thus  the  pioneer,  through 

St9 


-y 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

force  of  sheer  necessity,  became  a  dead  shot — 
which  stood  him  in  good  stead  in  the  days  of  In- 
dian incursions  and  bloody  retahatory  raids. 
Primitive  in  their  games,  recreations,  and 
amusements,  which  not  infrequently  degener- 
ated into  contests  of  savage  brutality,  the  pio- 
neers always  set  the  highest  premium  upon 
personal  bravery,  physical  prowess,  and  skill 
in  manly  sports.  At  all  public  gatherings, 
general  musters,  "vendues"  or  auctions,  and 
even  funerals,  whisky  flowed  with  extraor- 
dinary freedom.  It  is  worthy  of  record  that 
among  the  effects  of  the  Rev.  Alexander 
Craighead,  the  famous  teacher  and  organizer 
of  Presbyterianism  in  Mecklenburg  and  the 
adjoining  region  prior  to  the  Revolution,  were 
found  a  punch  bowl  and  glasses. 

The  frontier  life,  with  its  purifying  and 
hardening  influence,  bred  in  these  pioneers  in- 
tellectual traits  which  constitute  the  basis  of 
the  American  character.  The  single-handed 
and  successful  struggle  with  nature  in  the  tense 
solitude  of  the  forest  developed  a  spirit  of  in- 
dividualism,  restive   under  control.     On   the 

30 


THE  CRADLE  OF  WESTWARD  EXPANSION 

other  hand,  the  sense  of  sharing  with  others 
the  arduous  tasks  and  dangers  of  conquering 
the  wilderness  gave  birth  to  a  strong  sense  of 
solidarity  and  of  human  sympathy.  With  the 
lure  of  free  lands  ever  before  them,  the  pio- 
neers developed  a  restlessness  and  a  nervous 
energy,  blended  with  a  buoyancy  of  spirit, 
which  are  fundamentally  American.  Yet  this 
same  untrammeled  freedom  occasioned  a  dis- 
regard for  law  and  a  defiance  of  established 
government  which  have  exhibited  themselves 
throughout  the  entire  course  of  our  history. 
Initiative,  self-reliance,  boldness  in  conception, 
fertility  in  resource,  readiness  in  execution, 
acquisitiveness,  inventive  genius,  appreciation 
of  material  advantages — these,  shot  through 
with  a  certain  fine  idealism,  genial  human  sym- 
pathy, and  a  high  romantic  strain — are  the 
traits  of  the  American  national  type  as  it 
emerged  from  the  Old  Southwest.  yi 


31 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   BACK   COUNTRY   AND   THE   BORDER 

Far  from  the  bustle  of  the  world,  they  live  in  the  most  de- 
lightful climate,  and  richest  soil  imaginable;  they  are  every- 
where surrounded  with  beautiful  prospects  and  sylvan  scenes; 
lofty  mountains,  transparent  streams,  falls  of  water,  ricli 
valleys,  and  majestic  woods;  the  whole  interspersed  with  an 
infinite  variety  of  flowering  shrubs,  constitute  the  landscape 
surrounding  them;  they  are  subject  to  few  diseases;  are  gen- 
erally robust;  and  live  in  perfect  liberty;  they  are  ignorant 
of  want  and  acquainted  with  but  few  vices.  Their  inex- 
perience of  the  elegancies  of  life  precludes  any  regret  that  they 
possess  not  the  means  of  enjoying  them,  but  they  possess  what 
many  princes  would  give  half  their  dominion  for,  health,  con- 
tent, and  tranquillity  of  mind. 

— Andrew     Burnaby:     Travels     Through    North 
America. 

THE  two  streams  of  Ulstermen,  the 
greater  through  Philadelphia,  the  lesser 
through  Charleston,  which  poured  into  the 
Carolinas  toward  the  middle  of  the  century, 
quickly  flooded  the  back  country.  The  former 
occupied  the  Yadkin  Valley  and  the  region  to 
the  westward,  the  latter  the  Waxhaws  and  the 
Anson  County  region  to  the  northwest.     The 


THE  BACK  COUNTRY  AND  THE  BORDER 

first  settlers  were  known  as  the  "Pennsylvania 
Irish,"  because  they  had  first  settled  in  Penn- 
sylvania after  migrating  from  the  north  of  Ire- 
land ;  while  those  who  came  by  way  of  Charles- 
ton were  known  as  the  "Scotch-Irish."  The 
former,  who  had  resided  in  Pennsylvania  long 
enough  to  be  good  judges  of  land,  shrewdly 
made  their  settlements  along  the  rivers  and 
creeks.  The  latter,  new  arrivals  and  less  ex- 
perienced, settled  on  thinner  land  toward  the 
heads  of  creeks  and  water  courses.^^ 

Shortly  prior  to  1735,  Morgan  Bryan,  his 
wife  Martha,  and  eight  children,  together  with 
other  families  of  Quakers  from  Pennsylvania, 
settled  upon  a  large  tract  of  land  on  the  north- 
west side  of  the  Opeckon  River  near  Win- 
chester.^^ A  few  years  later  they  removed  up 
the  Virginia  Valley  to  the  Big  Lick  in  the 
present  Roanoke  County,  intent  upon  pushing 
westward  to  the  very  outskirts  of  civilization. 
In  the  autumn  of  1748,  leaving  behind  his 
brother  William,  who  had  followed  him  to 
Roanoke  County,  Morgan  Bryan  removed 
with  his  family  to  the  Forks  of  the  Yadkin 

33 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

River."'^  The  Morgans,  with  the  exception  of 
Richard,  who  emigrated  to  Virginia,  remained 
in  Pennsylvania,  spreading  over  Philadelphia 
and  Bucks  counties;  while  the  Hanks  and  Lin- 
coln families  found  homes  in  Virginia — Mor- 
decai  Lincoln's  son,  John,  the  great-grand- 
father of  President  Lincoln,  removing  from 
Berks  to  the  Shenandoah  Valley  in  1765.  On 
May  1,  1750,  Squire  Boone,  his  wife  Sarah 
(Morgan) ,  and  their  eleven  children — a  verita- 
ble caravan,  traveling  like  the  patriarchs  of 
old — started  south;  and  tarried  for  a  space, 
according  to  reliable  tradition,  on  Linville 
Creek  in  the  Virginia  Valley.  In  1752  they 
removed  to  the  Forks  of  the  Yadkin,  and  the 
following  year  received  from  Lord  Granville 
three  tracts  of  land,  all  situated  in  Rowan 
County.^ ^  About  the  hamlet  of  Salisbury, 
which  in  1755  consisted  of  seven  or  eight  log 
houses  and  the  court  house,  there  now  rapidly 
gathered  a  settlement  of  people  marked  by 
strong  individuality,  sturdy  independence,  and 
virile  self-reliance.  The  Boones  and  the  Bry- 
ans  quickly  accommodated  themselves  to  fron- 


THE  BACK  COUNTRY  AND  THE  BORDER 

tier  conditions  and  immediately  began  to 
take  an  active  part  in  the  local  affairs  of  the 
county.  Upon  the  organization  of  the  county 
court  Squire  Boone  was  chosen  justice  of  the 
peace;  and  Morgan  Bryan  was  soon  appear- 
ing as  foreman  of  juries  and  director  in  road 
improvements. 

The  Great  Trading  Path,  leading  from  Vir- 
ginia to  the  towns  of  the  Catawbas  and  other 
Southern  Indians,  crossed  the  Yadkin  at  the 
Trading  Ford  and  passed  a  mile  southeast  of 
Salisbury.  Above  Sapona  Town  near  the 
Trading  Ford  was  Swearing  Creek,  which,  ac- 
cording to  constant  and  picturesque  tradition, 
was  the  spot  where  the  traders  stopped  to  take 
a  solemn  oath  never  to  reveal  any  unlawful 
proceedings  that  might  occur  during  their  so- 
journ among  the  Indians.^^  In  his  divertingly 
satirical  "History  of  the  Dividing  Line"  Wil- 
liam Byrd  in  1728  thus  speaks  of  this  locality: 
"The  Soil  is  exceedingly  rich  on  both  sides 
the  Yadkin,  abounding  in  rank  Grass  and 
prodigiously  large  Trees;  and  for  plenty  of 
Fish,  Fowl  and  Venison,  is  inferior  to  No  Part 

S5 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

of  the  Northern  Continent.  There  the 
Traders  commonly  He  Still  for  some  days,  to 
recruit  their  Horses'  Flesh  as  well  as  to  recover 
their  own  spirits."  In  this  beautiful  country 
happily  chosen  for  settlement  by  Squire  Boone 
— who  erected  his  cabin  on  the  east  'side  of  the 
Yadkin  about  a  mile  and  a  quarter  from 
Alleman's,  now  Boone's,  Ford — wild  game 
abounded.  Buffaloes  were  encountered  in 
eastern  North  Carolina  by  Byrd  while  running 
the  dividing  line;  and  in  the  upper  country  of 
South  Carolina  three  or  four  men  with  their 
dogs  could  kill  fourteen  to  twenty  buffaloes  in 
a  single  day.^^  Deer  and  bears  fell  an  easy 
prey  to  the  hunter;  wild  turkeys  filled  every 
thicket;  the  watercourses  teemed  with  beaver, 
otter,  and  muskrat,  as  well  as  with  shad  and 
other  dehcious  fish.  Panthers,  wildcats,  and 
wolves  overran  the  country;  and  the  veracious 
Brother  Joseph,  while  near  the  present 
Wilkesboro,  amusingly  recordjs:  "The  wolves 
wh.  are  not  like  those  in  Germany,  Poland, 
and  Lif land  ( because  they  fear  men  and  don't 
easily  come  near)   give  us  such  music  of  six 

36 


COLONEL  DANIEL  BOONE 

From    lithograph    after    Chester    Harding    in    Jefferson     Memorial 
Courtesy   Missouri  Historical  Society 


THE  BACK  COUNTRY  AND  THE  BORDER 

different  comets  the  like  of  wh.  I  have  never 
heard  in  my  life."  ^*  So  plentiful  was  the 
game  that  the  wild  deer  mingled  with  the  cattle 
grazing  over  the  wide  stretches  of  luxuriant 
grass. 

In  the  midst  of  this  sylvan  paradise  grew 
up  Squire  Boone's  son,  Daniel  Boone,  a  Penn- 
sylvania youth  of  English  stock,  Quaker 
persuasion,  and  Baptist  proclivities.^^  Seen 
through  a  glorifying  halo  after  the  lapse  of 
a  century  and  three  quarters,  he  rises  before 
us  a  romantic  figure,  poised  and  resolute,  sim- 
ple, benign — as  naive  and  shy  as  some  wild 
thing  of  the  primeval  forest — five  feet  eight 
inches  in  height,  with  broad  chest  and  shoul- 
ders, dark  locks,  genial  blue  eyes  arched  with 
fair  eyebrows,  thin  lips  and  wide  mouth,  nose 
of  slightly  Roman  cast,  and  fair,  ruddy  coun- 
tenance. Farming  was  irksome  to  this  rest- 
less, nomadic  spirit,  who  on  the  slightest  excuse 
would  exchange  the  plow  and  the  grubbing- 
hoe  for  the  long  rifle  and  keen-edged  hunting- 
knife.  In  a  single  day  during  the  autumn 
season  he  would  kill  four  or  five  deer;  or  as 

37 


r*r">!<*-i  M 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

many  bears  as  would  make  from  two  to  three 
thousand  pounds  weight  of  bear-bacon.  Fas- 
cinated with  the  forest,  he  soon  found  profit 
as  well  -as  pleasure  in  the  pursuit  of  game; 
and  at  excellent  fixed  prices  he  sold  his  peltries, 
most  often  at  Salisbury,  some  thirteen  miles 
away,  sometimes  at  the  store  of  the  old  "Dutch- 
man," George  Hartman,  on  the  Yadkin,  and 
occasionally  at  Bethabara,  the  Moravian  town 
sixty-odd  miles  distant.  Skins  were  in  such 
demand  that  they  soon  came  to  replace  hard 
money,  which  was  incredibly  scarce  in  the  back 
country,  as  a  medium  of  exchange.  Upon 
one  occasion  a  caravan  from  Bethabara  hauled 
three  thousand  pounds,  upon  another  four 
thousand  pounds,  of  dressed  deerskins  to 
Charleston.^*'  So  immense  was  this  trade  that 
the  year  after  Boone's  arrival  at  the  Forks  of 
Yadkin  thirty  thousand  deerskins  were  ex- 
ported from  the  province  of  North  Carolina. 
We  like  to  think  that  the  young  Daniel  Boone 
was  one  of  that  band  of  whom  Brother  Joseph, 
while  in  camp  on  the  Catawba  River  (Novem- 
ber   12,    1752)     wrote:     "There    are    many 

38 


THE  BACK  COUNTRY  AND  THE  BORDER 

hunters  about  here,  who  live  hke  Indians,  they 
kill  many  deer  selling  their  hides,  and  thus  live 
without  much  work."  ^^ 

In  this  very  class  of  professional  hunters, 
living  like  Indians,  was  thus  bred  the  spirit 
of  individual  initiative  and  strenuous  leader- 
ship in  the  great  westward  expansionist  move- 
ment of  the  coming  decade.  An  English 
traveler  gives  the  following  minute  picture  of 
the  dress  and  accoutrement  of  the  Carolina 
backwoodsman : 

Their  whole  dress  is  very  singular,  and  not 
very  materially  different  from  that  of  the  In- 
dians; being  a  hunting  shirt,  somewhat  resem- 
bling a  waggoner's  frock,  ornamented  with  a 
great  many  fringes,  tied  round  the  middle  with 
a  broad  belt,  much  decorated  also,  in  which 
is  fastened  a  tomahawk,  an  instrument  that 
serves  every  purpose  of  defence  and  conven- 
ience ;  being  a  hammer  at  one  side  and  a  sharp 
hatchet  at  the  other;  the  shot  bag  and  powder- 
horn,  carved  with  a  variety  of  whimsical  fig- 
ures and  devices,  hang  from  their  necks  over 
one  shoulder;  and  on  their  heads  a  flapped 
hat,  of  a  reddish  hue,  proceeding  from  the  in- 
tensely hot  beams  of  the  sun. 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Sometimes  they  wear  leather  breeches,  made 
of  Indian  dressed  elk,  or  deer  skins,  but  more 
frequently  thin  trowsers. 

On  their  legs  they  have  Indian  boots,  or 
leggings,  made  of  coarse  woollen  cloth,  that 
either  are  wrapped  round  loosely  and  tied  with 
garters,  or  laced  upon  the  outside,  and  always 
come  better  than  half-way  up  the  thigh. 

On  their  feet  they  sometimes  wear  pumps  of 
their  own  manufacture,  but  generally  Indian 
moccossons,  of  their  own  construction  also, 
which  are  made  of  strong  elk's,  or  buck's  skin, 
dressed  soft  as  for  gloves  or  breeches,  drawn 
together  in  regular  plaits  over  the  toe,  and 
lacing  from  thence  round  to  the  fore  part  of 
the  middle  of  the  ancle,  without  a  seam  in  them, 
yet  fitting  close  to  the  feet,  and  are  indeed 
perfectly  easy  and  pliant. 

Their  hunting,  or  rifle  shirts,  they  have  also 
died  in  a  variety  of  colours,  some  yellow,  others 
red,  some  brown,  and  many  wear  them  quite 
white. ^^ 

No  less  unique  and  bizarre,  though  less  pic- 
turesque, was  the  dress  of  the  women  of  the 
region — in  particular  of  Surry  County,  North 
Carolina,  as  described  by  General  William 
Lenoir: 

40 


THE  BACK  COUNTRY  AND  THE  BORDER 

The  women  wore  .linsey  [flax]  petticoats 
and  'bed-gowns'  [like  a  dressing-sack],  and 
often  went  without  shoes  in  the  summer. 
Some  had  bonnets  and  bed-gowns  made  of 
calico,  but  generally  of  linsey;  and  some  of 
them  wore  men's  hats.  Their  hair  was  com- 
monly clubbed.  Once,  at  a  large  meeting,  I 
noticed  there  but  two  women  that  had  on  long 
gowns.  One  of  these  was  laced  genteelly,  and 
the  body  of  the  other  was  open,  and  the  tail 
thereof  drawn  up  and  tucked  in  her  apron  or 
coat-string.^^ 

While  Daniel  Boone  was  quietly  engaged 
in  the  pleasant  pursuits  of  the  chase,  a  vast 
world-struggle  of  which  he  little  dreamed  was 
rapidly  approaching  a  crisis.  For  three  quar- 
ters of  a  century  this  titanic  contest  between 
France  and  England  for  the  interior  of  the 
continent  had  been  waged  with  slowly  accumu- 
lating force.  The  irrepressible  conflict  had 
been  formally  inaugurated  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie 
in  1671,  when  Daumont  de  Saint  Lusson, 
swinging  aloft  his  sword,  proclaimed  the  sover- 
eignty of  France  over  "all  countries,  rivers, 
lakes,  and  streams  .  .  .  both  those  which  have 

41 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

been  discovered  and  those  which  may  be  dis- 
covered hereafter,  in  all  their  length  and 
breadth,  bounded  on  the  one  side  by  the  seas 
of  the  North  and  of  the  West,  and  on  the  other 
by  the  South  Sea."  Just  three  months  later, 
three  hardy  pioneers  of  Virginia,  despatched 
upon  their  arduous  mission  by  Colonel  Abra- 
ham Wood  in  behalf  of  the  English  crown, 
had  crossed  the  Appalachian  divide;  and  upon 
the  banks  of  a  stream  whose  waters  slipped 
into  the  Ohio  to  join  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  had  carved  the  royal  insignia 
upon  the  blazed  trunk  of  a  giant  of  the  forest, 
the  while  crying:  "Long  live  Charles  the 
Second,  by  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  Eng- 
land, Scotland,  France,  Ireland  and  Virginia 
and  of  the  territories  thereunto  belonging." 

La  Salle's  dream  of  a  New  France  in  the 
heart  of  America  was  blotted  out  in  his  tragic 
death  upon  the  banks  of  the  River  Trinity 
(1687).  Yet  his  mantle  was  to  fall  in  turn 
upon  the  square  shoulders  of  Le  Moyne  d'lber- 
ville  and  of  his  brother — the  good,  the  constant 
Bienville,   who   after   countless   and   arduous 

42 


THE  BACK  COUNTRY  AND  THE  BORDER 

struggles  laid  firm  the  foundations  of  New 
Orleans.  In  the  precious  treasury  of  Margry 
we  learn  that  on  reaching  Rochelle  after  his 
first  voyage  in  1699  Iberville  in  these  prophetic 
words  voices  his  faith:  "If  France  does  not 
immediately  seize  this  part  of  America  which 
is  the  most  beautiful,  and  establish  a  colony 
which  is  strong  enough  to  resist  any  which 
England  may  have,  the  English  colonies  (al- 
ready considerable  in  Carolina)  will  so  thrive 
that  in  less  than  a  hundred  years  they  will  be 
strong  enough  to  seize  all  America."  ^^  But 
the  world-weary  Louis  Quatorze,  nearing  his 
end,  quickly  tired  of  that  remote  and  unpro- 
ductive colony  upon  the  shores  of  the  gulf,  so 
industriously  described  in  Paris  as  a  "terres- 
trial paradise";  and  the  "paternal  providence 
of  Versailles"  willingly  yielded  place  to  the 
monumental  speculation  of  the  great  financier 
Antoine  Crozat.  In  this  Paris  of  prolific  pro- 
motion and  amazed  credulity,  ripe  for  the 
colossal  scheme  of  Law,  soon  to  blow  to  burst- 
ing-point the  bubble  of  the  Mississippi,  the 
very  songs  in  the  street  echoed  flamboyant, 

43 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

half-satiric  panegyrics  upon  the  new  Utopia, 
this  Mississippi  Land  of  Cockayne: 

It 's  to-day  no  contribution 
To  discuss  the  Constitution 
And  the  Spanish  war  's  forgot 
For  a  new  Utopian  spot; 
And  the  very  latest  phase 
Is  the  Mississippi  craze.^* 

Interest  in  the  new  colony  led  to  a  great 
development  of  southwesterly  trade  from  New 
France.  Already  the  French  coureurs  de  hois 
were  following  the  water  route  from  the  Illi- 
nois to  South  Carolina.  Jean  Couture,  a  de- 
serter from  the  service  in  New  France,  jour- 
neyed over  the  Ohio  and  Tennessee  rivers  to 
that  colony,  and  was  known  as  "the  greatest 
Trader  and  Traveller  amongst  the  Indians  for 
more  than  Twenty  years."  In  1714  young 
Charles  Charleville  accompanied  an  old  trader 
from  Crozat's  colony  on  the  gulf  to  the  great 
salt-springs  on  the  Cumberland,  where  a  post 
for  trading  with  the  Shawanoes  had  already 
been  established  by  the  French.^  ^  But  the 
British  were  preparing  to  capture  this  trade 

44 


THE  BACK  COUNTRY  AND  THE  BORDER 

as  early  as  1694,  when  Tonti  warned  Viller- 
mont  that  Carohnians  were  already  estabhshed 
on  a  branch  of  the  Ohio.  Four  years  later, 
Nicholson,  Governor  of  Maryland,  was  urging 
trade  with  the  Indians  of  the  interior  in  the 
effort  to  displace  the  French.  At  an  early 
date  the  coast  colonies  began  to  trade  with  the 
Indian  tribes  of  the  back  country:  the  Ca- 
tawbas  of  the  Yadkin  Valley;  the  Cherokees, 
whose  towns  were  scattered  through  Tennes- 
see ;  the  Chickasaws,  to  the  westward  in  north- 
ern Mississippi;  and  the  Choctaws  farther  to 
the  southward.  Even  before  the  beginning  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  South  Caro- 
lina settlements  extended  scarcely  twenty  miles 
from  the  coast,  English  traders  had  established 
posts  among  the  Indian  tribes  four  hundred 
miles  to  the  west  of  Charleston.  Following 
the  sporadic  trading  of  individuals  from  Vir- 
ginia with  the  inland  Indians,  the  heavily  laden 
caravans  of  William  Byrd  were  soon  regularly 
passing  along  the  Great  Trading  Path  from 
Virginia  to  the  towns  of  the  Catawbas  and 
other  interior  tribes  of  the  Carolinas,  delight- 

45 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

ing  the  easily  captivated  fancy  and  provoking 
the  cupidity  of  the  red  men  with  "Guns, 
Powder,  Shot,  Hatchets  (which  the  Indians 
call  Tomahawks),  Kettles,  red  and  blue 
Planes,  Duffields,  Stroudwater  blankets,  and 
some  Cutlaiy  Wares,  Brass  Rings  and  other 
Trinkets."  ^^  In  Pennsylvania,  George  Crog- 
han,  the  guileful  diplomat,  who  was  emissary 
from  the  Council  to  the  Ohio  Indians  (1748), 
had  induced  "all-most  all  the  Ingans  in  the 
Woods"  to  declare  against  the  French;  and 
was  described  by  Christopher  Gist  as  a  "meer 
idol  among  his  countrymen,  the  Irish  traders." 
Against  these  advances  of  British  trade  and 
civilization,  the  French  for  four  decades  had 
artfully  struggled,  projecting  tours  of  explor- 
ation into  the  vast  medial  valley  of  the  conti- 
nent and  constructing  a  chain  of  forts  and 
trading-posts  designed  to  establish  their  claims 
to  the  country  and  to  hold  in  check  the  threat- 
ened English  thrust  from  the  east.  Soon  the 
wilderness  ambassador  of  empire,  Celoron  de 
Bienville,  was  despatched  by  the  far-visioned 

46 


THE  BACK  COUNTRY  AND  THE  BORDER 

Galissoniere  at  Quebec  to  sow  broadcast  with 
ceremonial  pomp  in  the  heart  of  America  the 
seeds  of  empire,  grandiosely  graven  plates  of 
lasting  lead,  in  defiant  yet  futile  symbol  of 
the  asserted  sovereignty  of  France.  Thus 
threatened  in  the  vindication  of  the  rights  of 
their  colonial  sea-to-sea  charters,  the  English 
threw  off  the  lethargy  with  which  they  had 
failed  to  protect  their  traders,  and  in  grants 
to  the  Ohio  and  Loyal  land  companies  began 
resolutely  to  form  plans  looking  to  the  occu- 
pation of  the  interior.  But  the  French  seized 
the  English  trading-house  at  Venango  which 
they  converted  into  a  fort ;  and  Virginia's  pro- 
test, conveyed  by  a  calm  and  judicious  young 
man,  a  surveyor,  George  Washington,  availed 
not  to  prevent  the  French  from  seizing  Cap- 
tain Trent's  hastily  erected  military  post  at 
the  forks  of  the  Ohio  and  constructing  there 
a  formidable  work,  named  Fort  Duquesne. 
Washington,  with  his  expeditionary  force  sent 
to  garrison  Captain  Trent's  fort,  defeated 
Jumonville  and  his  small  force  near  Great 

47 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Meadows  (May,  1754)  ;  but  soon  after  he  was 
forced  to  surrender  Fort  Necessity  to  Coulon 
de  Villiers. 

The  titanic  struggle,  fittingly  precipitated 
in  the  backwoods  of  the  Old  Southwest,  was 
now  on — a  struggle  in  which  the  resolute  pio- 
neers of  these  backwoods  first  seriously  meas- 
ured their  strength  with  the  French  and  their 
copper-hued  allies,  and  learned  to  surpass  the 
latter  in  their  own  mode  of  warfare.  The  por- 
tentous conflict,  destined  to  assure  the  eastern 
half  of  the  continent  to  Great  Britain,  is  a 
grim,  prophetic  harbinger  of  the  mighty  move- 
ment of  the  next  quarter  of  a  century  into  the 
twilight  zone  of  the  trans-Alleghany  territory. 


48 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE    INDIAN    WAR 

All  met  in  companies  with  their  wives  and  children,  and 
set  about  building  little  fortifications,  to  defend  themselves 
from  such  barbarian  and  inhuman  enemies,  whom  they  con- 
cluded  would   be   let   loose   upon   them   at   pleasure. 

— The    Reverend   Hugh   McAdex:    Diary,  July, 
1755. 

LONG  before  the  actual  outbreak  of  hos- 
tilities powerful  forces  were  gradually 
converging  to  produce  a  clash  between  the  ag- 
gressive colonials  and  the  crafty  Indians.  As 
the  settlers  pressed  farther  westward  into  the 
domain  of  the  red  men,  arrogantly  grazing 
their  stock  over  the  cherished  hunting-grounds 
of  the  Cherokees,  the  savages,  who  were  already 
well  disposed  toward  the  French,  began  to 
manifest  a  deep  indignation  against  the  British 
colonists  because  of  this  callous  encroachment 
upon  their  territory.  During  the  sporadic 
forays  by  scattered  bands  of  Northern  Indians 

49 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

upon  the  Catawbas  and  other  tribes  friendly 
to  the  pioneers  the  isolated  settlements  at  the 
back  part  of  the  Carolinas  suffered  rude  and 
sanguinary  onslaughts.  In  the  summer  of 
1753  a  party  of  northern  Indians  warring  in 
the  French  interest  made  their  appearance  in 
Rowan  County,  which  had  just  been  organized, 
and  committed  various  depredations  upon  the 
scattered  settlements.  To  repel  these  attacks 
a  band  of  the  Catawbas  sallied  forth,  encoun- 
tered a  detached  party  of  the  enemy,  and  slew 
five  of  their  number.  Among  the  spoils,  sig- 
nificantly enough,  were  silver  crucifixes,  beads, 
looking-glasses,  tomahawks  and  other  imple- 
ments of  war,  all  of  French  manufacture.^* 

Intense  rivalry  for  the  good  will  of  the 
near-by  southern  tribes  existed  between  Vir- 
ginia and  South  Carolina.  In  strong  remon- 
strance against  the  alleged  attempt  of  Gover- 
nor Dinwiddie  of  Virginia  to  alienate  the 
Cherokees,  Catawbas,  Muscogees,  and  Chicka- 
saws  from  South  Carolina  and  to  attach  them 
to  Virginia,  Governor  Glen  of  South  Carolina 
made    pungent    observations    to    Dinwiddie: 

60 


THE  INDIAN  WAR 

"South  Carolina  is  a  weak  frontier  colony,  and 
in  case  of  invasion  by  the  French  would  be 
their  first  object  of  attack.  We  have  not 
much  to  fear,  however,  while  we  retain  the 
affection  of  the  Indians  around  us;  but  should 
we  forfeit  that  by  any  mismanagement  on  our 
part,  or  by  the  superior  address  of  the  French, 
we  are  in  a  miserable  situation.  The  Chero- 
kees  alone  have  several  thousand  gunmen  well 
acquainted  with  every  inch  of  the  province 
.  .  .  their  country  is  the  key  to  Carolina." 
By  a  treaty  concluded  at  Saluda  (November 
24,  1753),  Glen  promised  to  build  the  Chero- 
kees  a  fort  near  the  lower  towns,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  themselves  and  their  allies;  and  the 
Cherokees  on  their  part  agreed  to  become  the 
subjects  of  the  King  of  Great  Britain  and  hold 
their  lands  under  him.^^  This  fort,  erected 
this  same  year  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Sa- 
vannah, within  gunshot  distance  of  the  impor- 
tant Indian  town  of  Keowee,  was  named  Fort 
Prince  George.  "It  is  a  square,"  says  the 
founder  of  the  fort  (Governor  Glen  to  the 
Board  of  Trade,   August  26,   1754),   "with 

51 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

regular  Bastions  and  four  Ravelins  it  is  near 
Two  hundred  foot  from  Salient  Angle  to  Sali- 
ent Angle  and  is  made  of  Earth  taken  out 
of  the  Ditch,  secured  with  fachines  and  well 
ranimed  with  a  banquet  on  the  Inside  for  the 
men  to  stand  upon  when  they  fire  over,  the 
Ravehns  are  made  of  Posts  of  Lightwood 
which  is  very  durable,  they  are  ten  foot  in 
length  sharp  pointed  three  foot  and  a  half  in 
the  ground."  ^^  The  dire  need  for  such  a  fort 
in  the  back  country  was  tragically  illustrated 
by  the  sudden  onslaught  upon  the  "House 
of  John  Gutry  &  James  Anshers"  in  York 
County  by  a  party  of  sixty  French  Indians 
(December  16,  1754),  who  brutally  murdered 
sixteen  of  the  twenty-one  persons  present,  and 
carried  off  as  captives  the  remaining  five.^^ 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  French  and  Indian 
War  in  1754  North  Carolina  voted  twelve 
thousand  pounds  for  the  raising  of  troops  and 
several  thousand  pounds  additional  for  the 
construction  of  forts — a  sum  considerably 
larger  than  that  voted  by  Virginia.  A  regi- 
ment of  two  hundred  and  fifty  men  was  placed 

52 


THE  INDIAN  WAR 

under  the  command  of  Colonel  James  Innes  of 
the  Cape  Fear  section;  and  the  ablest  officer 
under  him  was  the  young  Irishman  from  the 
same  section,  Lieutenant  Hugh  Waddell.  On 
June  3,  1754,  Dinwiddie  appointed  Innes,  his 
close  friend,  commander-in-chief  of  all  the 
forces  against  the  French;  and  immediately 
after  the  disaster  at  Great  Meadows  (July, 
1754),  Innes  took  command.  Within  two 
months  the  supplies  for  the  North  Carolina 
troops  were  exhausted;  and  as  Virginia  then 
failed  to  furnish  additional  supplies,  Colonel 
Innes  had  no  recourse  but  to  disband  his  troops 
and  permit  them  to  return  home.  Appointed 
governor  of  Fort  Cumberland  by  General 
Braddock,  he  was  in  command  there  while 
Braddock  advanced  on  his  disastrous  march. 

The  lesson  of  Braddock's  defeat  (July  9, 
1755)  was  memorable  in  the  history  of  the  Old 
Southwest.  WeU  might  Braddock  exclaim 
with  his  last  breath:  "Who  would  have 
thought  it?  .  .  .  We  shall  know  better  how  to 
deal  with  them  another  time."  Led  on  by  the 
reckless  and  fiery  Beaujeu,  wearing  an  Indian 

53 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

gorget  about  his  neck,  the  savages  from  the 
protection  of  trees  and  rough  defenses,  a  pre- 
pared ambuscade,  poured  a  galling  fire  into 
the  compact  divisions  of  the  English,  whose 
scarlet  coats  furnished  ideal  targets.  The  ob- 
stinacy of  the  British  commanders  in  refusing 
to  permit  their  troops  to  fight  Indian  fashion 
vi^as  suicidal;  for  as  Herman  Alrichs  wrote 
Governor  Morris  of  Pennsylvania  (July  22, 
1755) :  "...  the  French  and  Indians  had 
cast  an  Intrenchment  across  the  road  before 
our  Army  which  they  Discovered  not  Untill 
the  [y]  came  Close  up  to  it,  from  thence  and 
both  sides  of  the  road  the  enemy  kept  a  con- 
stant fireing  on  them,  our  Army  being  so  con- 
fused, they  could  not  fight,  and  they  would 
not  be  admitted  by  the  Gen'  or  Sir  John  St. 
Clair,  to  break  thro'  their  Ranks  and  Take 
behind  trees."  ^^  Daniel  Boone,  who  went 
from  North  Carolina  as  a  wagoner  in  the  com- 
pany commanded  by  Edward  Brice  Dobbs, 
was  on  the  battle-field;  but  Dobbs's  company 
at  the  time  was  scouting  in  the  woods.  When 
the  fierce  attack  fell  upon  the  baggage  train, 

64) 


THE  INDIAN  WAR 

Boone  succeeded  in  effecting  his  escape  only 
by  cutting  the  traces  of  his  team  and  fleeing 
on  one  of  the  horses.  To  his  dying  day  Boone 
continued  to  censure  Braddock's  conduct,  and 
reprehended  especially  his  fatal  neglect  to  em- 
ploy strong  flank-guards  and  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  Provincial  scouts  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  wilderness  and  all  the  wiles  and  strate- 
gies of  savage  warfare. 

For  a  number  of  months  following  Brad- 
dock's  defeat  there  was  a  great  rush  of  the 
frightened  people  southward.  In  a  letter  to 
Dinwiddie,  Washington  expresses  the  appre- 
hension that  Augusta,  Frederick,  and  Hamp- 
shire County  will  soon  be  depopulated,  as  the 
whole  back  country  is  in  motion  toward  the 
southern  colonies.  During  this  same  smnmer 
Governor  Arthur  Dobbs  of  North  Carolina 
made  a  tour  of  exploration  through  the  west- 
ern part  of  the  colony,  seeking  a  site  for  a 
fort  to  guard  the  frontier.^^  The  frontier  com- 
pany of  fifty  men  which  was  to  garrison  the 
projected  fort  was  placed  under  the  command 
of  Hugh  Waddell,  now  promoted  to  the  rank 

55 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

of  captain,  though  only  twenty-one  years  old. 
In  addition  to  Waddell's  comjiany,  armed 
patrols  were  required  for  the  protection  of  the 
Rowan  County  frontier;  and  during  the  sum- 
mer Indian  alarms  were  frequent  at  the  Mora- 
vian village  of  Bethabara,  whose  inhabitants 
had  heard  with  distress  on  March  31st  of  the 
slaughter  of  eleven  Moravians  on  the  Mahoni 
and  of  the  ruin  of  Gnadenhiitten.  Many  of 
the  settlers  in  the  outlying  districts  of  Rowan 
fled  for  safety  to  the  refuge  of  the  little  village ; 
and  frequently  eveiy  available  house,  every 
place  of  temporary  abode  was  filled  with  panic- 
stricken  refugees.  So  persistent  were  the  dep- 
redations of  the  Indians  and  so  alarmed  were 
the  scattered  Rowan  settlers  by  the  news  of 
the  murders  and  the  destruction  of  Vaux's 
Fort  in  Virginia  (June  25,  1756)  that  at  a 
conference  on  July  5th  the  Moravians  "de- 
cided to  protect  our  houses  with  palisades,  and 
make  them  safe  before  the  enemy  should  in- 
vade our  tract  or  attack  us,  for  if  the  people 
were  all  going  to  retreat  we  would  be  the  last 
left  on  the  frontier  and  the  first  point  of  at- 

56 


FORT   DOBBS 

Sketch  made  from  official  description  of  fort 


THE  TRANSYLVANIA  FORT 
AT  BOONESBOROUGH 

iBuilt   by    Daniel    Boone    and    the    pioneers    from   plans   by   Richard 
Henderson 


THE  INDIAN  WAR 

tack."  By  July  23d,  they  had  constructed  a 
strong  defense  for  their  settlement,  afterward 
called  the  "Dutch  Fort"  by  the  Indians.  The 
principal  structure  was  a  stockade,  triangular 
in  plan,  some  three  hundred  feet  on  a  side, 
enclosing  the  principal  buildings  of  the  settle- 
ment; and  the  gateway  was  guarded  by  an 
observation  tower.  The  other  defense  was  a 
stockade  embracing  eight  houses  at  the  mill 
some  distance  away,  around  which  a  small 
settlement  had  sprung  up.^** 

During  the  same  year  the  fort  planned  by 
Dobbs  was  erected  upon  the  site  he  had  chosen 
— between  Third  and  Fourth  creeks;  and  the 
commissioners  Richard  Caswell  and  Francis 
Brown,  sent  out  to  inspect  the  fort,  made  the 
following  picturesque  report  to  the  Assembly 
(December  21,  1756)  : 

That  they  had  likewise  viewed  the  State  of 
Fort  Dobbs,  and  found  it  to  be  a  good  and  Sub- 
stantial Building  of  the  Dimentions  following 
(that  is  to  say)  The  Oblong  Square  fifty  three 
feet  by  forty,  the  opposite  Angles  Twenty 
four  feet  and  Twenty-Two  In  Height 
Twenty  four  and  a  half  feet  as  by  the  Plan 

67 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

annexed  Appears,  The  Thickness  of  the  Walls 
which  are  made  of  Oak  Logs  regularly  Dimin- 
ished from  sixteen  Inches  to  Six,  it  contains 
three  floors  and  there  may  be  discharged  from 
each  floor  at  one  and  the  same  time  about  one 
hundred  Musketts  the  same  is  beautifully  scit- 
uated  in  the  fork  of  Fourth  Creek  a  Branch 
of  the  Yadkin  River.  And  that  they  also  found 
under  Command  of  Cap*  Hugh  Waddel  Forty 
six  Effective  men  Officers  and  Soldiers  .  .  . 
the  said  Officers  and  Soldiers  Appearing  well 
and  in  good  Spirits/^ 

As  to  the  erection  of  a  fort  on  the  Tennessee, 
promised  the  Cherokees  by  South  Carolina, 
difficulties  between  the  governor  of  that  prov- 
ince and  of  Virginia  in  regard  to  matters  of 
policy  and  the  proportionate  share  of  expenses 
made  effective  cooperation  between  the  two 
colonies  well-nigh  impossible.  Glen,  as  we 
have  seen,  had  resented  Dinwiddle's  efforts  to 
win  the  South  Carolina  Indians  over  to  Vir- 
ginia's interest.  And  Dinwiddle  had  been 
very  indignant  when  the  force  promised  him 
by  the  Indians  to  aid  General  Braddock  did 
not  arrive,  attributing  this  defection  in  part 

58 


THE  INDIAN  WAR 

to  Glen's  negotiations  for  a  meeting  with  the 
chieftains  and  in  part  to  the  influence  of  the 
South  Carohna  traders,  who  kept  the  Indians 
away  by  hiring  them  to  go  on  long  hunts  for 
furs  and  skins.  But  there  was  no  such  con- 
tention between  Virginia  and  North  Caro- 
lina. Dinwiddie  and  Dobbs  arranged  (No- 
vember 6,  1755)  to  send  a  commission  from 
these  colonies  to  treat  with  the  Cherokees  and 
the  Catawbas.  Virginia  sent  two  commis- 
sioners, Colonel  William  Byrd,  third  of  that 
name,  and  Colonel  Peter  Randolph;  while 
North  Carolina  sent  one,  Captain  Hugh  Wad- 
dell.  Salisbury,  North  Carolina,  was  the 
place  of  rendezvous.  The  treaty  with  the  Ca- 
tawbas was  made  at  the  Catawba  Town,  pre- 
sumably the  village  opposite  the  mouth  of 
Sugaw  Creek,  in  York  County,  South  Caro- 
lina, on  February  20-21,  1756;  that  with  the 
Cherokees  on  Broad  River,  North  Carolina, 
March  13-17.  As  a  result  of  the  negotiations 
and  after  the  receipt  of  a  present  of  goods, 
the  Catawbas  agreed  to  send  forty  warriors 
to  aid  Virginia  within  forty  days;  and  the 

59 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Cherokees,  in  return  for  presents  and  Vir- 
ginia's promise  to  contribute  her  proportion 
toward  the  erection  of  a  strong  fort,  undertook 
to  send  four  hundred  warriors  within  forty 
days,  "as  soon  as  the  said  fort  shall  be  built." 
Virginia  and  North  Carolina  thus  wisely 
cooperated  to  "straighten  the  path"  and 
"brighten  the  chain"  between  the  white  and 
the  red  men,  in  important  treaties  which  have 
largely  escaped  the  attention  of  historians.^^ 

On  May  25,  1756,  a  conference  was  held 
at  Salisbury  between  King  Heygler  and  war- 
riors of  the  Catawba  nation  on  the  one  side 
and  Chief  Justice  Henley,  doubtless  attended 
by  Captain  Waddell  and  his  frontier  company, 
on  the  other.  King  Heygler,  following  the 
lead  set  by  the  Cherokees,  petitioned  the  Gov- 
ernor of  North  Carolina  to  send  the  Catawbas 
some  ammunition  and  to  "build  us  a  fort  for 
securing  our  old  men,  women  and  children 
when  we  turn  out  to  fight  the  Enemy  on  their 
coming."  The  chief  justice  assured  the  King 
that  the  Catawbas  would  receive  a  necessary 
supply  of  ammunition  (one  hundred  pounds  of 

60 


THE  INDIAN  WAR 

gunpower  and  four  hundred  pounds  of  lead 
were  later  sent  them)  and  promised  to  urge 
with  the  governor  their  request  to  have  a  fort 
built  as  soon  as  possible.  Pathos  not  unmixed 
with  dry  humor  tinges  the  eloquent  appeal  of 
good  old  King  Heygler,  ever  the  loyal  friend 
of  the  whites,  at  this  conference: 

I  desire  a  stop  may  be  put  to  the  selling  of 
strong  Liquors  by  the  White  people  to  my 
people  especially  near  the  Indian  nation.  // 
the  White  people  make  strong  drink,  let  them 
sell  it  to  one  another,  or  drink  it  in  their  own 
families.  This  will  avoid  a  great  deal  of  mis- 
chief which  otherwise  will  happen  from  my 
people  getting  drunk  and  quarrelling  with  the 
White  people.  I  have  no  strong  prisons  like 
you  to  confine  them  for  it.  Our  only  way  is 
to  put  them  under  ground  and  all  these  ( point- 
ing proudly  to  his  Warriors)  will  be  ready  to 
do  that  to  those  who  shall  deserve  it.^^ 

In  response  to  this  request,  the  sum  of  four 
thousand  pounds  was  appropriated  by  the 
North  Carolina  Assembly  for  the  erection  of  "a 
Fort  on  our  western  frontier  to  protect  and  se- 
cure the  Catawbas"  and  for  the  support  of  two 

61 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

companies  of  fifty  men  each  to  garrison  this 
and  another  fort  building  on  the  sea  coast. 
The  commissioners  appointed  for  the  purpose 
recommended  (December  21,  1756)  a  site  for 
the  fort  "near  the  Catawba  nation";  and  on 
January  20,  1757,  Governor  Dobbs  reported: 
"We  are  now  building  a  Fort  in  the  midst  of 
their  towns  at  their  own  Request."  The  fort 
thereupon  begun  must  have  stood  near  the 
mouth  of  the  South  Fork  of  the  Catawba 
River,  as  Dobbs  says  it  was  in  the  "midst" 
of  their  towns,  which  are  situated  a  "few  miles 
north  and  south  of  38°"  and  might  properly 
be  included  within  a  circle  of  thirty  miles 
radius.'*^ 

During  the  succeeding  months  many  dep- 
redations were  committed  by  the  Indians  upon 
the  exposed  and  scattered  settlements.  Had 
it  not  been  for  the  protection  afforded  by  all 
these  forts,  by  the  militia  companies  under 
Alexander  Osborne  of  Rowan  and  Nathaniel 
Alexander  of  Anson,  and  by  a  special  company 
of  patroUers  imder  Green  and  Moore,  the  back 

62 


THE  INDIAN  WAR 

settlers  who  had  been  so  outrageously  "pil- 
fered" by  the  Indians  would  have  "retired 
from  the  Frontier  into  the  inner  settle- 
ments." '" 


63 


CHAPTER  V 

IN  DEFENSE   OF   CIVILIZATION 

We  give  thanks  and  praise  for  the  safety  and  peace  vouch- 
safed us  by  our  Heavenly  Father  in  these  times  of  war. 
Many  of  our  neighbors,  driven  hither  and  yon  lilte  deer 
before  wild  beasts,  came  to  us  for  shelter,  yet  the  accustomed 
order  of  our  congregation  life  was  not  disturbed,  no,  not 
even  by  the  more  than  150  Indians  who  at  sundry  times  passed 
by,  stopping  for  a  day  at  a  time   and   being  fed  by  us. 

— Wachovia  Community  Diary,  1757. 

WITH  commendable  energy  and  expedi- 
tion Dinwiddie  and  Dobbs,  acting  in 
concert,  initiated  steps  for  keeping  the  engage- 
ments conjointly  made  by  the  two  colonies 
with  the  Cherokees  and  the  Catawbas  in  the 
spring  and  summer  of  1756.  Enlisting  sixty 
men,  "most  of  them  Artificers,  with  Tools  and 
Provisions,"  Major  Andrew  Lewis  proceeded 
in  the  late  spring  to  Echota  in  the  Cherokee 
country.  Here  during  the  hot  summer 
months  they  erected  the  Virginia  Fort  on  the 
path  from  Virginia,  upon  the  northern  bank 

64 


IN  DEFENSE  OF  CIVILIZATION 

of  the  Little  Tennessee,  nearly  opposite  the 
Indian  town  of  Echota  and  about  twenty-five 
miles  southwest  of  Knoxville/^  While  the 
fort  was  in  process  of  construction,  the  Chero- 
kees  were  incessantly  tampered  with  by  emis- 
saries from  the  Nuntewees  and  the  Savannahs 
in  the  French  interest,  and  from  the  French 
themselves  at  the  Alibamu  Fort.  So  effective 
were  these  machinations,  supported  by  extrav- 
agant promises  and  doubtless  rich  bribes,  that 
the  Cherokees  soon  were  outspokenly  express- 
ing their  desire  for  a  French  fort  at  Great 
Tellico. 

Dinwiddie  welcomed  the  departure  from 
America  of  Governor  Glen  of  South  Caro- 
lina, who  in  his  opinion  had  always  acted  con- 
trary to  the  king's  interest.  From  the  new 
governor,  William  Henry  Lyttelton,  who  ar- 
rived in  Charleston  on  June  1,  1756,  he  hoped 
to  secure  effective  cooperation  in  dealing  with 
the  Cherokees  and  the  Catawbas.  This  hope 
was  based  upon  Lyttelton's  recognition,  as 
stated  in  Dinwiddie's  words,  of  the  "Necessity 
of  strict  Union  between  the  whole  Colonies, 

65 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

with't  any  of  them  considering  their  particular 
Interest  separate  from  the  general  Good  of 
the  whole."  After  constructing  the  fort 
"with't  the  least  assistance  from  South  Caro- 
lina," Major  Lewi§  happened  by  accident 
upon  a  grand  council  being  held  in  Echota  in 
September.  At  that  time  he  discovered  to  his 
great  alarm  that  the  machinations  of  the 
French  had  already  produced  the  greatest 
imaginable  change  in  the  sentiment  of  the 
Cherokees.  Captain  Raymond  Demere  of  the 
Provincials,  with  two  hundred  English  troops, 
had  arrived  to  garrison  the  fort;  but  the  head 
men  of  all  the  Upper  Towns  were  secretly  in- 
fluenced to  agree  to  write  a  letter  to  Captain 
Demere,  ordering  him  to  return  immediately 
to  Charleston  with  all  the  troops  under  his 
command.  At  the  grand  council,  Atta-kulla- 
kulla,  the  great  Cherokee  chieftain,  passion- 
ately declared  to  the  head  men,  who  listened 
approvingly,  that  "as  to  the  few  soldiers  of 
Captain  Demere  that  was  there,  he  would  take 
their  Guns,  and  give  them  to  his  young  men 
to  hunt  with  and  as  to  their  clothes  they  would 

66 


IN  DEFENSE  OF  CIVILIZATION 

soon  be  worn  out  and  their  skins  would  be 
tanned,  and  be  of  the  same  colour  as  theirs, 
and  that  they  should  live  among  them  as 
slaves."  With  impressive  dignity  Major 
Lewis  rose  and  earnestly  pleaded  for  the  ob- 
servance of  the  terms  of  the  treaty  solemnly 
negotiated  the  preceding  March.  In  re- 
sponse, the  crafty  and  treacherous  chieftains 
desired  Lewis  to  tell  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
that  "they  had  taken  up  the  Hatchet  against 
all  Nations  that  were  Enemies  to  the  English" ; 
but  Lewis,  an  astute  student  of  Indian  psy- 
chology, rightly  surmised  that  all  their  glib 
professions  of  friendship  and  assistance  were 
"only  to  put  a  gloss  on  their  knaveiy."  *^  So 
it  proved;  for  instead  of  the  four  hundred 
warriors  promised  under  the  treaty  for  service 
in  Virginia,  the  Cherokees  sent  only  seven  war- 
riors, accompanied  by  three  women.  Al- 
though the  Cherokees  petitioned  Virginia  for 
a  number  of  men  to  garrison  the  Virginia  fort, 
Dinwiddie  postponed  sending  the  fifty  men 
provided  for  by  the  Virginia  Assembly  until 
he  could  reassure  himself  in  regard  to  the 

67 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

"Behaviour  and  Intention"  of  the  treacherous 
Indian  allies.  This  proved  to  be  a  prudent 
decision;  for  not  long  after  its  erection  the 
Virginia  fort  was  destroyed  by  the  Indians. 

Whether  on  account  of  the  dissatisfaction 
expressed  by  the  Cherokees  over  the  erection 
of  the  Virginia  fort  or  because  of  a  recognition 
of  the  mistaken  policy  of  garrisoning  a  work 
erected  by  Virginia  with  troops  sent  from 
Charleston,  South  Carolina  immediately  pro- 
ceeded to  build  another  stronghold  on  the 
southern  bank  of  the  Tennessee  at  the  mouth 
of  Tellico  River,  some  seven  miles  from  the 
site  of  the  Virginia  fort;  and  here  were  posted 
twelve  great  guns,  brought  thither  at  immense 
labor  through  the  wilderness.^^  To  this  fort, 
named  Fort  Loudoun  in  honor  of  Lord  Lou- 
doun, then  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  Eng- 
lish forces  in  America,  the  Indians  allured  arti- 
sans by  donations  of  land ;  and  during  the  next 
three  or  four  years  a  little  settlement  sprang 
up  there. 

The  frontiers  of  Virginia  suffered  most  from 
the  incursions  of  hostile  Indians  during  the 

68 


IN  DEFENSE  OF  CIVILIZATION 

fourteen  months  following  May  1,  1755.  In 
July,  the  Rev.  Hugh  McAden  records  that  he 
preached  in  Virginia  on  a  day  set  apart  for 
fasting  and  prayer  "on  account  of  the  wars 
and  many  murders,  committed  by  the  savage 
Indians  on  the  back  inhabitants."  On  July 
30th  a  large  party  of  Shawano  Indians  fell 
upon  the  New  River  settlement  arjd  wiped  it 
out  of  existence.  William  Ingles  was  absent 
at  the  time  of  the  raid;  and  Mrs.  Ingles,  who 
was  captured,  afterward  effected  her  escape.^'^ 
The  following  summer  (June  25,  1756),  Fort 
Vaux  on  the  headwaters  of  the  Roanoke,  under 
the  command  of  Captain  John  Smith,  was  cap- 
tured by  about  one  hundred  French  and  In- 
dians, who  burnt  the  fort,  killed  John  Smith 
junior,  John  Robinson,  John  Tracey  and  John 
Ingles,  wounded  four  men,  and  captured  twen- 
ty-two men,  women,  and  children.  Among 
the  captured  was  the  famous  Mrs.  Mary 
Ingles,  whose  husband,  John  Ingles,  was 
killed;  but  after  being  "carried  away  into 
Captivity,  amongst  whom  she  was  barbarously 
treated,"  according  to  her  own  statement,  she 

69 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

finally  escaped  and  returned  to  Virginia.^" 
The  frontier  continued  to  be  infested  by 
marauding  bands  of  French  and  Indians;  and 
Dinwiddie  gloomily  confessed  to  Dobbs  (July 
22d)  :  "I  apprehend  that  we  shall  always  be 
harrass'd  with  fly'g  Parties  of  these  Banditti 
unless  we  form  an  Expedit'n  ag'st  them,  to 
attack  'em  in  y'r  Towns."  ^^  Such  an  expedi- 
tion, known  as  the  Sandy  River  Expedition, 
had  been  sent  out  in  February  to  avenge  the 
massacre  of  the  New  River  settlers;  but  the 
enterprise  engaged  in  by  about  four  hundred 
Virginians  and  Cherokees  under  Major  An- 
drew Lewis  and  Captain  Richard  Pearis, 
proved  a  disastrous  failure.  Not  a  single  In- 
dian was  seen ;  and  the  party  suffered  extraor- 
dinary hardships  and  narrowly  escaped  star- 
vation.^^ 

In  conformity  with  his  treaty  obligations 
with  the  Catawbas,  Governor  Dobbs  commis- 
sioned Captain  Hugh  Waddell  to  erect  the 
fort  promised  the  Catawbas  at  the  spot  chosen 
by  the  commissioners  near  the  mouth  of  the 
South  Fork  of  the  Catawba  River.     This  fort, 

70 


IN  DEFENSE  OF  CIVILIZATION 

for  which  four  thousand  pounds  had  been  ap- 
propriated, was  for  the  most  part  completed 
by  midsummer,  1757.  But  owing,  it  appears, 
both  to  the  machinations  of  the  French  and  to 
the  intermeddling  of  the  South  Carolina 
traders,  who  desired  to  retain  the  trade  of  the 
Catawbas  for  that  province,  Oroloswa,  the  Ca- 
tawba King  Heygler,  sent  a  "talk"  to  Gov- 
ernor Lyttelton,  requesting  that  North  Caro- 
lina desist  from  the  work  of  construction  and 
that  no  fort  be  built  except  by  South  Carolina. 
Accordingly,  Governor  Dobbs  ordered  Cap- 
tain Waddell  to  discharge  the  workmen  (Au- 
gust 11, 1757)  "^ ;  and  every  effort  was  made  for 
many  months  thereafter  to  conciliate  the  Ca- 
tawbas, erstwhile  friends  of  North  Carolina. 
The  Catawba  fort  erected  by  North  Carolina 
was  never  fully  completed;  and  several  years 
later  South  Carolina,  having  succeeded  in 
alienating  the  Catawbas  from  North  Carolina, 
which  colony  had  given  them  the  best  possible 
treatment,  built  for  them  a  fort  ^^  at  the  mouth 
of  Line  Creek  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Catawba 
River. 

71 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

In  the  spring  and  summer  of  1757  the  long- 
expected  Indian  aUies  arrived  in  Virginia,  as 
many  as  four  hundred  by  May — Cherokees, 
Catawbas,  Tuscaroras,  and  Nottaways.  But 
Dinwiddie  was  wholly  unable  to  use  them  ef- 
fectively; and  in  order  to  provide  amusement 
for  them,  he  directed  that  they  should  go  "a 
scalping"  with  the  whites — "a  barbarous 
method  of  war,"  frankly  acknowledged  the 
governor,  "introduced  by  the  French,  which  we 
are  oblidged  to  follow  in  our  own  defense." 
Most  of  the  Indian  allies  discontentedly  re- 
turned home  before  the  end  of  the  year,  but 
the  remainder  waited  until  the  next  year,  to 
take  part  in  the  campaign  against  Fort  Du- 
quesne.  Three  North  Carolina  companies, 
composed  of  trained  soldiers  and  hardy  fron- 
tiersmen, went  through  this  campaign  under 
the  command  of  Major  Hugh  Waddell,  the 
^'Washington  of  North  Carolina."  Long  of 
limb  and  broad  of  chest,  powerful,  lithe,  and 
active,  Waddell  was  an  ideal  leader  for  this 
arduous  service,  being  fertile  in  expedient  and 
skilful  in  the  employment  of  Indian  tactics. 

72 


IN  DEFENSE  OF  CIVILIZATION 

With  true  provincial  pride  Governor  Dobbs 
records  that  Waddell  "had  great  honor  done 
him,  being  employed  in  all  reconnoitring  par- 
ties, and  dressed  and  acted  as  an  Indian;  and 
his  sergeant,  Rogers,  took  the  only  Indian  pris- 
oner, who  gave  Mr.  Forbes  certain  intelligence 
of  the  forces  in  Fort  Duquesne,  upon  which 
they  resolved  to  proceed."  This  apparently 
trivial  incident  is  remarkable,  in  that  it  proved 
to  be  the  decisive  factor  in  a  campaign  that 
was  about  to  be  abandoned.  The  information 
in  regard  to  the  state  of  the  garrison  at  Fort 
Duquesne,  secured  from  the  Indian,  for  the 
captm'e  of  whom  two  leading  officers  had  of- 
fered a  reward  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds,  emboldened  Forbes  to  advance  rather 
than  to  retire.  Upon  reaching  the  fort  (No- 
vember 25th),  he  found  it  abandoned  by  the 
enemy.  Sergeant  Rogers  never  received  the 
reward  promised  by  General  Forbes  and  the 
other  English  officer ;  but  some  time  afterward 
he  was  compensated  by  a  modest  sum  from 
the  colony  of  North  Carolina.^^ 

A  series  of  unfortunate  occurrences,  chiefly 
73 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

the  fault  of  the  whites,  soon  resulted  in  the 
precipitation  of  a  terrible  Indian  outbreak.  A 
party  of  Cherokees,  returning  home  in  May, 
1758,  seized  some  stray  horses  on  the  frontier 
of  Virginia — never  dreaming  of  any  wrong, 
says  an  old  historian,  as  they  saw  it  frequently 
done  by  the  whites.  The  owners  of  the  horses, 
hastily  forming  a  party,  went  in  pursuit  of 
the  Indians  and  killed  twelve  or  fourteen  of 
the  number.  The  relatives  of  the  slain  In- 
dians, greatly  incensed,  vowed  vengeance  upon 
the  whites. ^*^  Nor  was  the  tactless  conduct  of 
Forbes  calculated  to  quiet  this  resentment ;  for 
when  Atta-kulla-kulla  and  nine  other  chieftains 
deserted  in  disgust  at  the  treatment  accorded 
them,  they  were  pursued  by  Forbes's  orders, 
apprehended  and  disaiTQcd.^^  This  rude  treat- 
ment, coupled  with  the  brutal  and  wanton  mur- 
der of  some  Cherokee  hunters  a  little  earlier, 
by  an  irresponsible  band  of  Virginians  under 
Captain  Robert  Wade,  still  further  aggra- 
vated the  Indians.^^ 

Incited  by  the  French,  who  had  fled  to  the 
southward  after  the  fall  of  Fort  Duquesne, 

74 


IN  DEFENSE  OF  CIVILIZATION 

parties  of  bloodthirsty  young  Indians  rushed 
down  upon  the  settlements  and  left  in  their 
path  death  and  desolation  along  the  frontiers 
of  the  Carolinas.^^  On  the  upper  branch  of 
the  Yadkin  and  below  the  South  Yadkin  near 
Fort  Dobbs  twenty-two  whites  fell  in  swift 
succession  before  the  secret  onslaughts  of  the 
savages  from  the  lower  Cherokee  towns.^° 
Many  of  the  settlers  along  the  Yadkin  fled  to 
the  Carolina  Fort  at  Bethabara  and  the  stock- 
ade at  the  mill;  and  the  sheriff  of  Rowan 
County  suffered  siege  by  the  Cherokees,  in  his 
home,  until  rescued  by  a  detachment  under 
Brother  Loesch  from  Bethabara.  While 
many  families  took  refuge  in  Fort  Dobbs, 
frontiersmen  under  Captain  Morgan  Bryan 
ranged  through  the  mountains  to  the  west  of 
Salisbury  and  guarded  the  settlements  from 
the  hostile  incursions  of  the  savages.  So 
gravely  alarmed  were  the  Rowan  settlers,  com- 
pelled by  the  Indians  to  desert  their  planting 
and  crops,  that  Colonel  Harris  was  despatched 
post-haste  for  aid  to  Cape  Fear,  arriving 
there  on  July  1st.     With  strenuous  energy 

76 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Captain  Waddell,  then  stationed  in  the  east, 
rushed  two  companies  of  thirty  men  each  to 
the  rescue,  sending  by  water-carriage  six 
swivel  guns  and  ammunition  on  before  him; 
and  these  reinforcements  brought  relief  at  last 
to  the  harassed  Rowan  frontiers.®^  During 
the  remainder  of  the  year,  the  borders  were 
kept  clear  by  bold  and  tireless  rangers — under 
the  leadership  of  expert  Indian  fighters  of  the 
stamp  of  Griffith  Rutherford  and  Morgan 
Bryan. 

When  the  Cherokee  warriors  who  had 
wrought  havoc  along  the  North  Carolina  bor- 
der in  April  arrived  at  their  town  of  Settiquo, 
they  proudly  displayed  the  twenty-two  scalps 
of  the  slain  Rowan  settlers.  Upon  the  de- 
mand for  these  scalps  by  Captain  Demere  at 
Fort  lioudon  and  under  direction  of  Atta- 
kuUa-kulla,  the  Settiquo  warriors  surrendered 
eleven  of  the  scalps  to  Captain  Demere  who, 
according  to  custom  in  time  of  peace,  buried 
them.  New  murders  on  Pacolet  and  along 
the  Virginia  Path,  which  occurred  shortly 
afterward,  caused  gloomy  forebodings;  and  it 

76 


IN  DEFENSE  OF  CIVILIZATION 

was  plain,  says  a  contemporary  gazette,  that 
"the  lower  Cherokees  were  not  satisfied  with 
the  mui'der  of  the  Rowan  settlers,  but  intended 
further  mischief."  ®^  On  October  1st  and 
again  on  October  31st,  Governor  Dobbs  re- 
ceived urgent  requests  from  Governor  Lyttel- 
ton,  asking  that  the  North  Carolina  provin- 
cials and  militia  cooperate  to  bring  him  assist- 
ance. Although  there  was  no  law  requiring 
the  troops  to  march  out  of  the  province  and 
the  exposed  frontiers  of  North  Carolina  sorely 
needed  protection,  Waddell,  now  commis- 
sioned colonel,  assembled  a  force  of  five  small 
companies  and  marched  to  the  aid  of  Governor 
Lyttelton.  But  early  in  January,  1760,  while 
on  the  march,  Waddell  received  a  letter  from 
Lyttelton,  informing  him  that  the  assistance 
was  not  needed  and  that  a  treaty  of  peace  had 
been  negotiated  with  the  Cherokees.®^ 


77 


CHAPTER  VI 

CRUSHING   THE   CHEROKEES 

Thus  ended  the  Cherokee  war,  which  was  among  the  last 
humbling  strokes  given  to  the  expiring  power  of  France  in 
North  America. 

— Hewatt:  An  Historical  Account  of  the  Rise  and 
Progress  of  the  Colonies  of  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia.     1779. 

GOVERNOR  LYTTELTON'S  treaty 
of  "peace,"  negotiated  with  the  Chero- 
kees  at  the  close  of  1759,  was  worse  than  a 
crime:  it  was  a  crass  and  hideous  blunder. 
His  domineering  attitude  and  tyrannical  treat- 
ment of  these  Indians  had  aroused  the  bitterest 
animosity.  Yet  he  did  not  realize  that  it  was 
no  longer  safe  to  trust  their  word.  No  sooner 
did  the  governor  withdraw  his  army  from  the 
borders  than  the  cunning  Cherokees,  whose  pas- 
sions had  been  inflamed  by  what  may  fairly  be 
called  the  treacherous  conduct  of  Lyttelton, 
rushed  down  with  merciless  ferocity  upon  the 

78 


CRUSHING  THE  CHEROKEES 

innocent  and  defenseless  families  on  the  fron- 
tier. On  Februarj^  1, 1760,  while  a  large  party 
(including  the  family  of  Patrick  Calhoun), 
numbering  in  all  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
persons,  were  removing  from  the  Long  Cane 
settlement  to  Augusta,  they  were  suddenly 
attacked  by  a  hundred  mounted  Cherokees, 
who  slaughtered  about  fifty  of  them.  After 
the  massacre,  many  of  the  children  were  found 
helplessly  wandering  in  the  woods.  One  man 
alone  carried  to  Augusta  no  less  than  nine  of 
the  pitiful  innocents,  some  horribly  mutilated 
with  the  tomahawk,  others  scalped,  and  all  yet 
alive. 

Atrocities  defying  description  continued  to 
be  committed,  and  many  people  were  slain. 
The  Cherokees,  under  the  leadership  of  Si- 
lou-ee,  or  the  Young  Warrior  of  Estatoe,  the 
Round  O,  Tiftoe,  and  others,  were  baffled  in 
their  persistent  efforts  to  capture  Fort  Prince 
George.  On  February  16th  the  crafty  Oconos- 
tota  appeared  before  the  fort  and  under  the 
pretext  of  desiring  some  white  man  to  accom- 
pany him  on  a  visit  to  the  governor  on  urgent 

79 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

business,  lured  the  commander,  Lieutenant 
Coytomore,  and  two  attendants  to  a  confer- 
ence outside  the  gates.  At  a  preconceived  sig- 
nal a  volley  of  shots  rang  out ;  th&  two  attend- 
ants were  wounded,  and  Lieutenant  Coyto- 
more, riddled  with  bullets,  fell  dead.  En- 
raged by  this  act  of  treachery,  the  garrison  put 
to  death  the  Indian  hostages  within.  During 
the  abortive  attack  upon  the  fort,  Oconostota, 
unaware  of  the  murder  of  the  hostages, 
was  heard  shouting  above  the  din  of 
battle:  "Fight  strong,  and  you  shall  be  re- 
lieved." «^ 

Now  began  the  dark  days  along  the  Rowan 
border,  which  were  so  sorely  to  test  human  en- 
durance. Many  refugees  fortijfied  themselves 
in  the  different  stockades;  and  Colonel  Hugh 
Waddell  with  his  redoubtable  frontier  com- 
pany of  Indian-fighters  awaited  the  onslaught 
of  the  savages,  who  were  reported  to  have 
passed  through  the  mountain  defiles  and  to  be 
approaching  along  the  foot-hills.  The  story  of 
the  investment  of  Fort  Dobbs  and  the  splen- 
didly daring  sortie  of  Waddell  and  Bailey  is 

80 


CRUSHING  THE  CHEROKEES 

best  told  in  Waddell's   report   to   Governor 
Dobbs  (February  29,  1760)  : 

For  several  Days  I  observed  a  small  party 
of  Indians  were  constantly  about  the  fort,  I 
sent  out  several  parties  after  them  to  no  pur- 
pose, the  Evening  before  last  between  8  &  9 
o'clock  I  found  by  the  Dogs  making  an  un- 
common Noise  there  must  be  a  party  nigh  a 
Spring  which  we  sometimes  use.  As  my  Gar- 
rison is  but  small,  and  I  was  apprehensive  it 
might  be  a  scheme  to  draw  out  the  Garrison, 
I  took  our  Capt.  Bailie  who  with  myself  and 
party  made  up  ten:  We  had  not  marched 
300  yds.  from  the  fort  when  we  were  attacked 
by  at  least  60  or  70  Indians.  I  had  given 
my  party  Orders  not  to  fire  until  I  gave  the 
word,  which  they  punctually  observed:  We 
reed  the  Indians'  fire :  When  I  perceived  they 
had  almost  all  fired,  I  ordered  my  party  to 
fire  which  We  did  not  further  than  12  steps 
each  loaded  with  a  Bullet  and  7  Buck  Shot, 
they  had  nothing  to  cover  them  as  they  were 
advancing  either  to  tomahawk  us  or  make  us 
Prisoners :  They  found  the  fire  very  hot  from 
so  small  a  Number  which  a  good  deal  confused 
them:  I  then  ordered  my  party  to  retreat,  as 
I  found  the  Instant  our  skirmish  began  an- 
other party  had  attacked  the  fort,  upon  our 
reinforcing  the  garrison  the  Indians  were  soon 

81 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

repulsed  with  I  am  sure  a  considerable  Loss, 
from  what  I  myself  saw  as  well  as  those  I  can 
confide  in  they  cou'd  not  have  less  than  10  or 
12  killed  and  wounded;  The  next  Morning  we 
found  a  great  deal  of  Blood  and  one  dead 
whom  I  suppose  they  cou'd  not  find  in  the 
night.  On  my  side  I  had  2  Men  wounded  one 
of  whom  I  am  afraid  will  die  as  he  is  scalped, 
the  other  is  in  way  of  Recovery,  and  one  boy 
killed  near  the  fort  whom  they  durst  not  ad- 
vance to  scalp.  I  expected  they  would  have 
paid  me  another  visit  last  night,  as  they  attack 
all  Fortifications  by  Night,  but  find  they  did 
not  like  their  Reception.*'^ 

Alarmed  by  Waddell's  "offensive-defen- 
sive," the  Indians  abandoned  the  siege.  Rob- 
ert Campbell,  Waddell's  ranger,  who  was 
scalped  in  this  engagement,  subsequently  re- 
covered from  his  wounds  and  was  recompensed 
by  the  colony  with  the  sum  of  twenty  pounds.^*' 

In  addition  to  the  frontier  militia,  four  in- 
dependent compa^nies  were  now  placed  under 
Waddell's  command.  Companies  of  volun- 
teers scoured  the  woods  in  search  of  the  lurking 
Indian  foe.  These  rangers,  who  were  clad  in 
hunting-shirts  and  buckskin  leggings,  and  who 

82 


CRUSHING  THE  CHEROKEES 

employed  Indian  tactics  in  fighting,  were  cap- 
tained by  such  hardy  leaders  as  the  veteran 
Morgan  Bryan,  the  intrepid  Griffith  Ruther- 
ford, the  German  partisan,  Martin  Phifer 
(Pfeiffer) ,  and  Anthony  Hampton,  the  father 
of  General  Wade  Hampton.  They  visited 
periodically  a  chain  of  "forest  castles"  erected 
by  the  settlers — extending  all  the  way  from 
Fort  Dobbs  and  the  Moravian  fortifications  in 
the  Wachau  to  Samuel  Stalnaker's  stockade 
on  the  Middle  Fork  of  the  Holston  in  Vir- 
ginia. About  the  middle  of  March,  thirty 
volunteer  Rowan  County  rangers  encountered 
a  band  of  forty  Cherokees,  who  fortified  them- 
selves in  a  deserted  house  near  the  Catawba 
River.  The  famous  scout  and  hunter,  John 
Perkins,  assisted  by  one  of  his  bolder  com- 
panions, crept  up  to  the  house  and  flung 
lighted  torches  upon  the  roof.  One  of  the  In- 
dians, as  the  smoke  became  suffocating  and 
the  flames  burned  hotter,  exclaimed:  "Better 
for  one  to  die  bravely  than  for  all  to  perish 
miserably  in  the  flames,"  and  darting  forth, 
dashed  rapidly  hither  and  thither,  in  order  to 

83 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

draw  as  many  shots  as  possible.  This  act  of 
superb  self-sacrifice  was  successful;  and  while 
the  rifles  of  the  whites,  who  riddled  the  brave 
Indian  with  balls,  were  empty,  the  other  sav- 
ages made  a  wild  dash  for  liberty.  Seven  fell 
thus  under  the  deadly  rain  of  bullets ;  but  many 
escaped.  Ten  of  the  Indians,  all  told,  lost 
their  scalps,  for  which  the  volunteer  rangers 
were  subsequently  paid  one  hundred  pounds 
by  the  colony  of  North  Carolina.®^ 

Beaten  back  from  Fort  Dobbs,  sorely  de- 
feated along  the  Catawba,  hotly  pursued  by 
the  rangers,  the  Cherokees  continued  to  lurk 
in  the  shadows  of  the  dense  forests,  and  at 
every  opportunity  to  fall  suddenly  upon  way- 
faring settlers  and  isolated  cabins  remote  from 
any  stronghold.  On  March  8th  William  Fish, 
his  son,  and  Thompson,  a  companion,  were 
riding  along  the  "trace,"  in  search  of  provi- 
sions for  a  group  of  families  fortified  on  the 
Yadkin,  when  a  flight  of  arrows  hurtled  from 
the  cane-brake,  and  Fish  and  his  son  fell  dead. 
Although  pierced  with  two  arrows,  one  in  the 
hip  and  one  clean  through  his  body,  Thomp- 


CRUSHING  THE  CHEROKEES 

son  escaped  upon  his  fleet  horse;  and  after  a 
night  of  ghastly  suffering  finally  reached  the 
Carolina  Fort  at  Bethabara.  The  good  Dr. 
Bonn,  by  skilfully  extracting  the  barbed 
shafts  from  his  body,  saved  Thompson's  life. 
The  pious  Moravians  rejoiced  over  the  recov- 
ery of  the  brave  messenger,  whose  sensational 
arrival  gave  them  timely  warning  of  the  close 
proximity  of  the  Indians.  While  feeding 
their  cattle,  settlers  were  shot  from  ambush 
by  the  lurking  foe;  and  on  March  11th,  a  fam- 
ily barricaded  within  a  burning  house,  which 
they  were  defending  with  desperate  courage, 
were  rescued  in  the  nick  of  time  by  the  militia. 
No  episode  from  Fenimore  Cooper's  Leather- 
stocking  Tales  surpasses  in  melancholy  inter- 
est Harry  Hicks's  heroic  defense  of  his  little 
fort  on  Bean  Island  Creek.  Surrounded  by 
the  Indians,  Hicks  and  his  family  took  refuge 
within  the  small  outer  palisade  around  his 
humble  home.  Fighting  desperately  against 
terrific  odds,  he  was  finally  driven  from  his 
yard  into  his  log  cabin,  which  he  continued 
to    defend    with    dauntless    courage.    With 

85 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

every  shot  he  tried  to  send  a  redskin  to  the 
happy  hunting-grounds ;  and  it  was  only  after 
his  powder  was  exhausted  that  he  fell,  fighting 
to  the  last,  beneath  the  deadly  tomahawk.  So 
impressed  were  the  Indians  by  his  bravery  that 
they  spared  the  life  of  his  wife  and  his  little 
son;  and  these  were  afterward  rescued  by 
Waddell  when  he  marched  to  the  Cherokee 
towns  in  1761.^^ 

The  kindly  Moravians  had  always  enter- 
tained with  generous  hospitality  the  roving 
bands  of  Cherokees,  who  accordingly  held 
them  in  much  esteem  and  spoke  of  Bethabara 
as  "the  Dutch  Fort,  where  there  are  good  peo- 
ple and  much  bread."  But  now,  in  these 
dread  days,  the  truth  of  their  daily  text  was 
brought  forcibly  home  to  the  Moravians: 
"Neither  Nehemiah  nor  his  brethren  put  off 
their  clothes,  but  prayed  as  they  watched." 
With  Bible  in  one  hand  and  rifle  in  the  other, 
the  inhabitant  of  Wachovia  sternly  marched 
to  religious  worship.  No  Puritan  of  bleak 
New  England  ever  showed  more  resolute  cour- 
age or  greater  will  to  defend  the  hard-won 


CRUSHING  THE  CHEROKEES 

outpost  of  civilization  than  did  the  pious  Mo- 
ravian of  the  Wachau.  At  the  new  settlement 
of  Bethania  on  Easter  Day,  more  than  four 
hundred  souls,  including  sixty  rangers,  listened 
devoutly  to  the  eloquent  sermon  of  Bishop 
Spangenberg  concerning  the  way  of  salvation 
— the  while  their  arms,  stacked  without  the 
Gemein  Haus,  were  guarded  by  the  watchful 
sentinel.  On  March  14th  the  watchmen  at 
Bethania  with  well-aimed  shots  repelled  the 
Indians,  whose  hideous  yells  of  baffled  rage 
sounded  down  the  wind  like  "the  howling  of 
a  hundred  wolves."  Religion  was  no  protec- 
tion against  the  savages;  for  three  ministers 
journeying  to  the  present  site  of  Salem  were 
set  upon  by  the  red  men — one  escaping,  an- 
other suffering  capture,  and  the  third,  a  Bap- 
tist, losing  his  life.  A  little  later  word  came 
to  Fort  Dobbs  that  John  Long  and  Robert 
Gillespie  of  Salisbury  had  been  shot  from  am- 
bush and  scalped — Long  having  been  pierced 
with  eight  bullets  and  Gillespie  with  seven.*'^ 

There  is  one  beautiful  incident  recorded  by 
the  Moravians,  which  has  a  truly  symbolic  sig- 

87 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

nificance.  While  the  war  was  at  its  height, 
a  strong  party  of  Cherokees,  who  had  lost  their 
chief,  planned  in  retaliation  to  attack  Bethab- 
ara.  "When  they  went  home,"  sets  forth 
the  Moravian  Diary,  "they  said  they  had  been 
to  a  great  town,  where  there  were  a  great  many 
people,  where  the  bells  rang  often,  and  during 
the  night,  time  after  time,  a  horn  was  blown, 
so  that  they  feared  to  attack  the  town  and 
had  taken  no  prisoners."  The  trumpet  of  the 
watchman,  announcing  the  passing  of  the  hour, 
had  convinced  the  Indians  that  their  plans  for 
attack  were  discovered;  and  the  regular  eve- 
ning bell,  summoning  the  pious  to  prayer,  rang 
in  the  stricken  ears  of  the  red  men  like  the 
clamant  call  to  arms. 

Following  the  retirement  from  office  of  Crov- 
ernor  Lyttelton,  Lieutenant-Governor  Bull 
proceeded  to  prosecute  the  war  with  vigor. 
On  April  1,  1760,  twelve  hundred  men  under 
Colonel  Archibald  Montgomerie  arrived  at 
Charleston,  with  instructions  to  strike  an  im- 
mediate blow  and  to  relieve  Fort  Loudon,  then 
invested   by  the   Cherokees.     With   his   own 

88 


COLONEL  ARCHIBALD  MONTGOMERIE    (1726-1796) 

Mezzotint    by    S.    W.    Reynolds    after    the    original    painting    by 
C.   F.   V.   Breda 


CRUSHING  THE  CHEROKEES 

force,  two  hundfed  and  ninety-five  South 
Carolina  Rangers,  forty  picked  men  of  the 
new  "levies,"  and  "a  good  number  of  guides," 
Montgomerie  moved  from  Fort  Ninety-Six  on 
May  28th.  On  the  first  of  June,  crossing 
Twelve-Mile  River,  Montgomerie  began  the 
campaign  in  earnest,  devastating  and  burning 
every  Indian  village  in  the  Valley  of  Keowee, 
killing  and  capturing  more  than  a  hundred  of 
the  Cherokees,  and  destroying  immense  stores 
of  corn.  Receiving  no  reply  to  his  summons 
to  the  Cherokees  of  the  Middle  and  Upper 
Towns  to  make  peace  or  suffer  like  treatment, 
Montgomerie  took  up  his  march  from  Fort 
Prince  George  on  June  24th,  resolved  to  carry 
out  his  threat.  On  the  morning  of  the  27th, 
he  was  drawn  into  an  ambuscade  within  six 
miles  of  Et-chow-ee,  eight  miles  south  of  the 
present  Frankhn,  North  Carolina,  a  mile  and 
a  half  below  Smith's  Bridge,  and  was  vigor- 
ously attacked  from  dense  cover  by  some  six 
hundred  and  thirty  warriors  led  by  Si-lou-ee. 
Fighting  with  Indian  tactics,  the  Provincial 
Rangers  under  Patrick  Calhoun  particularly 

89 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

distinguished  themselves;  and  the  blood-curd- 
ling yells  of  the  painted  savages  were  re- 
sponded to  by  the  wild  huzzas  of  the  kilted 
Highlanders  who,  waving  their  Scotch  bon- 
nets, impetuously  charged  the  redskins  and 
drove  them  again  and  again  from  their  lurk- 
ing-places. Nevertheless  Montgomerie  lost 
from  eighty  to  one  hundred  in  killed  and 
wounded,  while  the  loss  of  the  Indians  was 
supposed  to  be  about  half  the  loss  of  the  whites. 
Unable  to  care  for  his  wounded  and  lacking 
the  means  of  removing  his  baggage,  Montgom- 
erie silently  withdrew  his  forces.  In  so  doing, 
he  acknowledged  defeat,  since  he  was  com- 
pelled to  abandon  his  original  intention  of  re- 
lieving the  beleaguered  garrison  of  Fort  Lou- 
don. 

Captain  Demere  and  his  devoted  little  band, 
who  had  been  resolutely  holding  out,  were  now 
left  to  their  tragic  fate.  After  the  bread  was 
exhausted,  the  garrison  was  reduced  to  the 
necessity  of  eating  dogs  and  horses;  and  the 
loyal  aid  of  the  Indian  wives  of  some  of  the 
garrison,  who  secretly  brought  them  supplies 

90 


CRUSHING  THE  CHEROKEES 

of  food  daily,  enabled  them  to  hold  out  still 
longer.  Realizing  at  last  the  futility  of  pro- 
longing the  hopeless  contest,  Captain  Demere 
surrendered  the  fort  on  August  8,  1760.  At 
daylight  the  next  morning,  while  on  the  march 
to  Fort  Prince  George,  the  soldiers  were  set 
upon  by  the  treacherous  Cherokees,  who  at 
the  first  onset  killed  Captain  Demere  and 
twenty-nine  others.  A  humane  chieftadn, 
Outassitus,  says  one  of  the  gazettes  of  the  day, 
"went  around  the  field  calling  upon  the  In- 
dians to  desist,  and  making  such  representa- 
tions to  them  as  stopped  the  further  progress 
and  effects  of  their  barbarous  and  brutal  rage,'* 
which  expressed  itself  in  scalping  and  hacking 
off  the  arms  and  legs  of  the  defenseless  whites. 
Atta-kuUa-kulla,  who  was  friendly  to  the 
whites,  claimed  Captain  Stuart,  the  second 
officer,  as  his  captive,  and  bore  him  away  by 
stealth.  After  nine  days'  journey  through 
the  wilderness  they  encountered  an  advance 
party  under  Major  Andrew  Lewis,  sent  out 
by  Colonel  Byrd,  head  of  a  reheving  army, 
to  rescue  and  succor  any  of  the  garrison  who 

91 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

might  effect  their  escape.  Thus  Stuart  was 
restored  to  his  friends.  This  abortive  and 
tragic  campaign,  in  which  the  victory  lay  con- 
clusively with  the  Indians,  ended  when  Byrd 
disbanded  his  new  levies  and  Montgomerie 
sailed  from  Charleston  for  the  north  (August, 
1760). 

During  the  remainder  of  the  year,  the  prov- 
ince of  North  Carolina  remained  free  of  fur- 
ther alarms  from  the  Indians.  But  the  view 
was  generally  entertained  that  one  more  joint 
effort  of  North  Carolina,  South  Carohna,  and 
Virginia  would  have  to  be  made  in  order  to 
humble  the  Cherokees.  At  the  sessions  of  the 
North  Carolina  Assembly  in  November  and 
again  in  December,  matters  in  dispute  between 
Governor  Dobbs  and  the  representatives  of  the 
people  made  impossible  the  passage  of  a  pro- 
posed aid  bill,  providing  for  five  hundred  men 
to  cooperate  with  Virginia  and  South  Caro- 
lina. Nevertheless  volunteers  in  large  num- 
bers patriotically  marched  from  North  Caro- 
lina to  Charleston  and  the  Congaree  (Decem- 
ber, 1760,  to  April,  1761),  to  enlist  in  the  fa- 

92 


COLONEL  JAMES  GRANT    (1720-1806) 

From   I.    Kay's    Original  Portraits    (1798) 


CRUSHING  THE  CHEROKEES 

mous  regiment  being  organized  by  Colonel 
Thomas  MiddletonJ^  On  March  31,  1761, 
Governor  Dobbs  called  together  the  Assembly 
to  act  upon  a  letter  received  from  General 
Amherst,  outlining  a  more  vigorous  plan  of 
campaign  appropriate  to  the  succession  of  a 
j'oung  and  vigorous  sovereign,  George  III. 
An  aid  bill  was  passed,  providing  twenty  thou- 
sand pounds  for  men  and  supplies;  and  one 
regiment  of  five  companies  of  one  hundred  men 
each,  under  the  command  of  Colonel  Hugh 
Waddell,  was  mustered  into  service  for  seven 
months'  duty,  beginning  May  1,  1761.'^ 

On  ^^y  7,  1761,  Colonel  James  Grant,  de- 
tached from  the  main  army  in  command  of  a 
force  of  twenty-six  hundred  men,  took  up  his 
march  from  Fort  Prince  George.  Attacked 
on  June  10th  two  miles  south  of  the  spot  where 
Montgomerie  was  engaged  the  preceding  year. 
Grant's  army,  after  a  vigorous  engagement 
lasting  several  hours,  drove  off  the  Indians. 
The  army  then  proceeded  at  leisure  to  lay 
waste  the  fifteen  towns  of  the  Middle  Settle- 
ments; and,  after  this  work  of  systematic  de- 

93 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

vastation  was  over,  returned  to  Fort  Prince 
George.  Peace  was  concluded  in  September 
as  the  result  of  this  campaign;  and  in  conse- 
quence the  frontier  was  pushed  seventy  miles 
farther  to  the  west. 

Meantime,  Colonel  Waddell  Avith  his  force 
of  five  hundred  North  Carolinians  had  acted 
in  concert  with  Colonel  William  Byrd,  com- 
manding the  Virginia  detachment.  The  com- 
bined forces  went  into  camp  at  Captain  Sam- 
uel Stalnaker's  old  place  on  the  Middle  Fork 
of  Holston.  Because  of  his  deliberately  dila- 
tory policy,  Byrd  was  superseded  in  the  com- 
mand by  Colonel  Adam  Stephen.  Marching 
their  forces  to  the  Long  Island  of  Holston,  Ste- 
phen and  Waddell  erected  there  Fort  Robin- 
son, in  compliance  with  the  instructions  of 
Governor  Fauquier,  of  Virginia.  The  Chero- 
kees,  heartily  tired  of  the  war,  now  sued  for 
peace,  which  was  concluded,  independent  of 
the  treaty  at  Charleston,  on  November  19, 
1761. 

The  successful  termination  of  this  campaign 
had  an  effect  of  signal  importance  in  the  de- 

94 


CRUSHING  THE  CHEROKEES 

velopment  of  the  expansionist  spirit.  The  rich 
and  beautiful  lands  which  fell  under  the  eye 
of  the  North  Carolina  and  Virginia  pioneers 
under  Waddell,  Byrd,  and  Stephen,  lured 
them  irresistibly  on  to  wider  casts  for  fortune 
and  bolder  explorations  into  the  unknown, 
beckoning  West. 


95 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   LAND   COMPANIES 

It  was  thought  good  policy  to  settle  those  lands  as  fast  as 
possible,  and  that  the  granting  them  to  men  of  the  first  con- 
sequence who  were  likeliest  and  best  able  to  procure  large 
bodies  of  people  to  settle  on  them  was  the  most  probable 
means  of  effecting  the  end  proposed. 

— AcTiNG-GovERKOR    Nei.son    of    Virginia   to    tiie 
Earl  of  Hillsborough:  1770. 

ALTHOUGH  for  several  decades  the  Vir- 
ginia traders  had  been  passing  over  the 
Great  Trading  Path  to  the  towns  of  the  Chero- 
kees  and  the  Catawbas,  it  was  not  until  the 
early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  Vir- 
ginians of  imaginative  vision  directed  their 
eyes  to  the  westward,  intent  upon  crossing  the 
mountains  and  locating  settlements  as  a  firm 
barrier  against  the  imperialistic  designs  of 
France.  Acting  upon  his  oft-expressed  con- 
viction that  once  the  English  settlers  had  estab- 
lished themselves  at  the  source  of  the  James 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

River  "it  would  not  be  in  the  power  of  the 
French  to  dislodge  them,"  Governor  Alexan- 
der Spotswood  in  1716,  animated  with  the 
spirit  of  the  pioneer,  led  an  expedition  of  fifty- 
men  and  a  train  of  pack-horses  to  the  moun- 
tains, arduously  ascended  to  the  summit  of 
the  Blue  Ridge,  and  claimed  the  country  by 
right  of  discovery  in  behalf  of  his  sovereign. 
In  the  journal  of  John  Fontaine  this  vivacious 
account  is  given  of  the  historic  episode:  "I 
graved  my  name  on  a  tree  by  the  river  side; 
and  the  Governor  buried  a  bottle  with  a  paper 
enclosed  on  which  he  writ  that  he  took  posses- 
sion of  this  place  in  the  name  and  for  King 
George  the  First  of  England.  We  had  a  good 
dinner,  and  after  it  we  got  the  men  together 
and  loaded  all  their  arms  and  we  drank  the 
King^s  health  in  Burgundy  and  fired  a  volley, 
and  all  the  rest  of  the  Royal  Family  in  claret 
and  a  volley.  We  drank  the  Governor's 
health  and  fired  another  volley." 

By  this  jovial  picnic,  which  the  governor 
afterward  commemorated  by  presenting  to 
each  of  the  gentlemen  who  accompanied  him 

97 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

a  golden  horseshoe,  inscribed  with  the  legend, 
Sic  juvat  transcendere  monies,  Alexander 
Spotswood  anticipated  by  a  third  of  a  century 
the  more  ambitious  expedition  on  behalf  of 
France  by  Celoron  de  Bienville  (see  Chapter 
III),  and  gave  a  memorable  object-lesson  in 
the  true  spirit  of  westward  expansion.  Dur- 
ing the  ensuing  years  it  began  to  dawn  upon 
the  minds  of  men  of  the  stamp  of  William 
Byrd  and  Jos'hua  Gee  that  there  was  impera- 
tive need  for  the  establishment  of  a  chain  of 
settlements  in  the  trans- Alleghany,  a  great  hu- 
man wall  to  withstand  the  advancing  wave  of 
French  influence  and  occupation.  By  the 
fifth  decade  of  the  century,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  Virginia  settlers,  with  their  squatter's 
claims  and  tomahawk  rights,  had  pushed  on 
to  the  mountains;  and  great  pressure  was 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  council  to  issue 
grants  for  vast  tracts  of  land  in  the  uncharted 
wilderness  of  the  interior. 

At  this  period  the  English  ministry  adopted 
the  aggressive  policy  already  mentioned  in 
connection  with  the  French  and  Indian  war, 

98 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

indicative  of  a  deteiinination  to  contest  with 
France  the  right  to  occupy  the  interior  of  the 
continent.  This  poHcy  had  been  inaugurated 
by  Virginia  with  the  express  purpose  of  stimu- 
lating the  adoption  of  a  similar  policy  by  North 
Carolina  and  Pennsylvania.  Two  land  com- 
panies, organized  almost  simultaneously,  ac- 
tively promoted  the  preliminaries  necessary  to 
settlement,  despatching  parties  under  expert 
leadership  to  discover  the  passes  through  the 
mountains  and  to  locate  the  best  land  in  the 
trans-Alleghany. 

In  June,  1749,  a  great  corporation,  the 
Loyal  Land  Company  of  Virginia,  received 
a  grant  of  eight  hundred  thousand  acres  above 
the  North  Carolina  line  and  west  of  the  moun- 
tains. Dr.  Thomas  Walker,  an  expert  sur- 
veyor, who  in  company  with  several  other  gen- 
tlemen had  made  a  tour  of  exploration  through 
eastern  Tennessee  and  the  Holston  region  in 
1748,  was  chosen  as  the  agent  of  this  company. 
Starting  from  his  home  in  Albemarle  County, 
Virginia,  March  6,  1750,  accompanied  by  five 
stalwart  pioneers.  Walker  made  a  tour  of  ex- 

99 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

ploration  to  the  westward,  being  absent  four 
months  and  one  week.  On  this  journey,  which 
carried  the  party  as  far  west  as  the  Rockcastle 
River  (May  11th)  and  as  far  north  as  the 
present  Paintsville,  Kentucky,  they  named 
many  natural  objects,  such  as  mountains  and 
rivers,  after  members  of  the  party.  Their  two 
principal  achievements  were  the  erection  of  the 
first  house  built  by  white  men  between  the 
Cumberland  Mountains  and  the  Ohio  River — 
a  feat,  however,  which  led  to  no  important  de- 
velopments; and  the  discovery  of  the  wonder- 
ful gap  in  the  Alleghanies  to  which  Walker 
gave  the  name  Cumberland,  in  honor  of  the 
ruthless  conqueror  at  Culloden,  the  "bloody 
duke." 

In  1748  the  Ohio  Company  was  organized 
by  Colonel  Thomas  Lee,  president  of  the  Vir- 
ginia council,  and  twelve  other  gentlemen,  of 
Virginia  and  Maryland.  In  their  petition  for 
five  hundred  thousand  acres,  one  of  the  de- 
clared objects  of  the  company  was  "to  antici- 
pate the  French  by  taking  possession  of  that 
country  southward  of  the  Lakes  to  which  the 

100 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

French  had  no  right.  ..."  By  the  royal 
order  of  May  19,  174)9,  the  company  was 
awarded  two  hundred  thousand  acres,  free  of 
quit-rent  for  ten  years;  and  the  promise  was 
made  of  an  additional  award  of  the  remainder 
petitioned  for,  on  condition  of  seating  a  hun- 
dred families  upon  the  original  grant  and  the 
building  and  maintaining  of  a  fort.  Christo- 
pher Gist,  summoned  from  his  remote  home 
on  the  Yadkin  in  North  Carolina,  was  in- 
structed "to  search  out  and  discover  the  Lands 
upon  the  river  Ohio  &  other  adjoining  branches 
of  the  Mississippi  down  as  low  as  the  great 
Falls  thereof."  In  this  journey,  which  began 
at  Colonel  Thomas  Cresap's,  in  Maryland,  in 
October,  1750,  and  ended  at  Gist's  home  on 
May  18,  1751,  Gist  visited  the  Lower  Shawnee 
Town  and  the  Lower  Blue  Licks,  ascended 
Pilot  Knob  almost  two  decades  before  Find- 
lay  and  Boone,  from  the  same  eminence,  "saw 
with  pleasure  the  beautiful  level  of  Kentucky," 
intersected  Walker's  route  at  two  points,  and 
crossed  Cumberland  Mountain  at  Pound  Gap 
on  the  return  journey.     This  was  a  far  more 

101 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

extended  journey  than  Walker's,  enabling 
Gist  to  explore  the  fertile  valleys  of  the  Musk- 
ingum, Scioto,  and  Miami  rivers  and  to  gain 
a  view  of  the  beautiful  meadows  of  Kentucky  J  ^ 
It  is  eminently  significant  of  the  spirit  of 
the  age,  which  was  inaugurating  an  era  of  land- 
hunger  unparalleled  in  American  history,  that 
the  first  authentic  records  of  the  trans-AUe- 
ghany  were  made  by  surveyors  who  visited  the 
country  as  the  agents  of  great  land  companies. 
The  outbreak  of  the  French  and  Indian  War 
so  soon  afterward  delayed  for  a  decade  and 
more  any  important  colonization  of  the  West. 
Indeed,  the  explorations  and  findings  of 
Walker  and  Gist  were  almost  unknown,  even 
to  the  companies  they  represented.  But  the 
conclusion  of  peace  in  1763,  which  gave  all  the 
region  between  the  mountains  and  the  Missis- 
sippi to  the  British,  heralded  the  true  begin- 
ning of  the  westward  expansionist  movement 
in  the  Old  Southwest,  and  inaugurated  the 
constructive  leadership  of  North  Carolina  in 
the  occupation  and  colonization  of  the  imperial 
domain  of  Kentucky  and  the  Ohio  Valley. 

102  >- 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

In  the  middle  years  of  the  century  many 
families  of  Virginia  gentry  removed  to  the 
back  country  of  North  Carohna  in  the  fertile 
region  ranging  from  Williamsborough  on  the 
east  to  Hillsborough  on  the  west."^^  There 
soon  arose  in  this  section  of  the  colony  a  so- 
ciety marked  by  intellectual  distinction,  social 
graces,  and  the  leisured  dignity  of  the  land- 
lord and  the  large  planter.  So  conspicuous 
for  means,  intellect,  culture,  and  refinement 
were  the  people  of  this  group,  having  "abun- 
dance of  wealth  and  leisure  for  enjoyment," 
that  Governor  Josiah  Martin,  in  passing 
through  this  region  some  years  later,  signifi- 
cantly observes:  "They  have  great  pre-emi- 
nence, as  well  with  respect  to  soil  and  cultiva- 
tion, as  to  the  manners  and  condition  of  the 
inhabitants,  in  which  last  respect  the  difference 
is  so  great  that  one  would  be  led  to  think 
them  people  of  another  region."  ^^  This  new 
wealthy  class  which  was  now  turning  its  gaze 
toward  the  unoccupied  lands  along  the  frontier 
was  "dominated  by  the  democratic  ideals  of 
pioneers  rather  than  by  the  aristocratic  tend- 

103 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

encies  of  slave-holding  planters."  ^^  From  the 
cross-fertilization  of  the  ideas  of  two  social 
groups — this  back-country  gentrj^  of  innate 
qualities  of  leadership,  democratic  instincts, 
economic  independence,  and  expansive  tenden- 
cies, and  the  primitive  pioneer  society  of  the 
frontier,  frugal  in  taste,  responsive  to  leader- 
ship, bold,  ready,  and  thorough  in  execution 
— there  evolved  the-  militant  American  expan- 
sion in  the  Old  Southwest. 

A  conspicuous  figure  in  this  society  of  Vir- 
ginia emigrants  was  a  young  man  named  Rich- 
ard Henderson,  whose  father  had  removed 
with  his  family  from  Hanover  County,  Vir- 
ginia, to  Bute,  afterward  Granville  County, 
North  Carolina,  in  1742.^*^  Educated  at  home 
by  a  private  tutor,  he  began  his  career  as  as- 
sistant of  his  father,  Samuel  Henderson,  the 
High  Sheriff  of  Granville  County;  and  after 
receiving  a  law-license,  quickly  acquired  an 
extensive  practice.  "Even  in  the  superior 
courts  where  oratory  and  eloquence  are  as 
brilliant  and  powerful  as  in  Westminster- 
hall,"  records  an  English  acquaintance,   "he 

104> 


I 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

soon  became  distinguished  and  eminent,  and 
his  superior  genius  shone  forth  with  gi'eat 
splendour,  and  universal  applause."  This 
young  attorney,  wedded  to  the  daughter  of 
an  Irish  lord,  often  visited  Salisbury  on  his 
legal  circuit;  and  here  he  became  well  ac- 
quainted with  Squire  Boone,  one  of  the 
"Worshipfull  Justices,"  and  often  appeared 
in  suits  before  him.  By  his  son,  the  nomadic 
Daniel  Boone,  conspicuous  already  for  his 
solitary  wanderings  across  the  dark  green 
mountains  to  the  sun-lit  valleys  and  bound- 
less hunting-grounds  beyond,  Henderson  was 
from  time  to  time  regaled  with  bizarre  and 
fascinating  tales  of  western  exploration; 
and  Boone,  in  his  dark  hour  of  poverty  and 
distress,  when  he  was  heavily  involved  finan- 
cially, turned  for  aid  to  this  friend  and  his 
partner,  who  composed  the  law-firm  of  Wil- 
liams and  Henderson.''^^ 

Boone's  vivid  descriptions  of  the  paradise 
of  the  West  stimulated  Henderson's  imagina- 
tive mind  and  attracted  his  attention  to  the 
rich  possibilities  of  unoccupied  lands  there. 

105 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

While  the  Board  of  Trade  in  drafting  the 
royal  proclamation  of  October  7,  1763,  forbade 
the  gi'anting  of  lands  in  the  vast  interior,  which 
was  specifically  reserved  to  the  Indians,  it  was 
clearly  not  their  intention  to  set  permanent 
western  limits  to  the  colonies.^^  The  prevail- 
ing opinion  among  the  shrewdest  men  of  the 
period  was  well  expressed  by  George  Wash- 
ington, who  wrote  his  agent  for  preempting 
western  lands:  "I  can  never  look  upon  that 
proclamation  in  any  other  light  ( but  I  say  this 
between  ourselves)  than  as  a  temporary  ex- 
pedient to  quiet  the  minds  of  the  Indians." 
And  again  in  1767:  "It  [the  proclamation 
of  1763]  must  fall,  of  course,  in  a  few  years, 
especially  when  those  Indians  consent  to  our 
occupying  the  lands.  Any  person,  therefore, 
who  neglects  the  present  opportunity  of  hunt- 
ing out  good  lands,  and  in  some  measure  mark- 
ing out  and  distinguishing  them  for  his  own,  in 
order  to  keep  others  from  settling  them,  will 
never  regain  it."  Washington  had  added 
greatly  to  his  holdings  of  bounty  lands  in  the 
West  by  purchasing  at  trivial  prices  the  claims 

106 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

of  many  of  the  officers  and  soldiers.  Three 
years  later  we  find  him  surveying  extensive 
tracts  along  the  Ohio  and  the  Great  Kanawha, 
and,  with  the  vision  of  the  expansionist,  mak- 
ing large  plans  for  the  establishment  of  a 
colony  to  be  seated  upon  his  own  lands.  Hen- 
derson, too,  recognized  the  importance  of  the 
great  country  west  of  the  Appalachians.  He 
agreed  with  the  opinion  of  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin, who  in  1756  called  it  "one  of  the  finest  in 
North  America  for  the  extreme  richness  and 
fertility  of  the  land,  the  healthy  temperature 
of  the  air  and  the  mildness  of  the  climate,  the 
plenty  of  hunting,  fishing  and  fowling,  the 
facility  of  trade  with  the  Indians  and  the  vast 
convenience  of  inland  navigation  or  water  car- 
riage." ^°  Henderson  therefore  proceeded  to 
organize  a  land  company  for  the  purpose  of 
acquiring  and  colonizing  a  large  domain  in  the 
West.  This  partnership,  which  was  entitled 
Richard  Henderson  and  Company,  was  com- 
posed of  a  few  associates,  including  Richard 
Henderson,  his  uncle  and  law-partner,  John 
Williams,  and,  in  all  probability,  their  close 

107 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

friends  Thomas  and  Nathaniel  Hart  of 
Orange  County,  North  Carolina,  immigrants 
from  Hanover  Comity,  Virginia. 

Seizing  the  opportunity  presented  just  after 
the  conclusion,  of  peace,  the  company  engaged 
Daniel  Boone  as  scout  and  surveyor.  He  was 
instructed,  while  hunting  and  trapping  on  his 
own  account,  to  examine,  with  respect  to  their 
location  and  fertility,  the  lands  which  he  vis- 
ited, and  to  report  his  findings  upon  his  re- 
turn. The  secret  expedition  must  have  been 
transacted  with  commendable  circumspection; 
for  although  in  after  years  it  became  common 
knowledge  among  his  friends  that  he  had  acted 
as  the  company's  agent,  Boone  himself  con- 
sistentty  refrained  from  betraying  the  confi- 
dence of  his  employers.^*^  Upon  a  similar  mis- 
sion. Gist  had  carefully  concealed  from  the 
suspicious  Indians  the  fact  that  he  carried  a 
compass,  which  they  wittily  termed  "land 
stealer";  and  Washington  likewise  imposed 
secrecy  upon  his  land  agent  Crawford,  insist- 
ing that  the  operation  be  carried  on  under  the 
guise  of  hunting  game.^^     The  discreet  Boone, 

108 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

taciturn  and  given  to  keeping  his  own  counsel, 
in  one  instance  at  least  deemed  it  advantageous 
to  communicate  the  purpose  of  his  mission  to 
some  hunters,  well  known  to  him,  in  order  to 
secure  the  results  of  their  information  in  re- 
gard to  the  best  lands  they  had  encountered 
in  the  course  of  their  hunting  expedition. 
Boone  came  among  the  hunters,  known  as  the 
"Elevens  connection,"  at  one  of  their  Tennes- 
see station  camps  on  their  return  from  a  long 
hunt  in  Kentucky,  in  order,  as  expressed  in 
the  quaint  phraseology  of  the  period,  to  be 
"informed  of  the  geography  and  locography 
of  these  woods,  saying  that  he  was  employed 
to  explore  them  by  Henderson  &  Company."  ^^ 
The  acquaintance  which  Boone  on  this  occa- 
sion formed  with  a  member  of  the  party, 
Henry  Scaggs,  the  skilled  hunter  and  ex- 
plorer, was  soon  to  bear  fruit ;  for  shortly  after- 
ward Scaggs  was  employed  as  prospector  by 
the  same  land  company.  In  1764  Scaggs  had 
passed  through  Cumberland  Gap  and  hunted 
for  the  season  on  the  Cumberland;  and  ac- 
cordingly the  following  year,  as  the  agent  of 

109 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Richard  Henderson  and  Company,  he  was  des- 
patched on  an  extended  exploration  to  the 
lower  Cumberland,  fixing  his  station  at  the  salt 
lick  afterward  known  as  Mansker's  Lick.^^ 

Richard  Henderson  thus,  it  appears,  "en- 
listed the  Harts  and  others  in  an  enterprise 
which  his  own  genius  planned,"  says  Peck,  the 
personal  acquaintance  and  biographer  of 
Boone,  "and  then  encouraged  several  hunters 
to  explore  the  country  and  learn  where  the  best 
lands  lay."  Just  why  Henderson  and  his  asso- 
ciates did  not  act  sooner  upon  the  reports 
brought  back  by  the  hunters — Boone  and 
Scaggs  and  Callaway,  who  accompanied  Boone 
in  1764  in  the  interest  of  the  land  company  ^^ — 
is  not  known;  but  in  all  probability  the  frag- 
mentary nature  of  these  reports,  however  glow- 
ing and  enthusiastic,  was  sufficient  cause  for  the 
delay  of  five  years  before  the  land  company, 
through  the  agency,  of  Boone  and  Findlay,  suc- 
ceeded in  having  a  thorough  exploration  made 
of  the  Kentucky  region.  Delay  was  also 
caused  by  rival  claims  to  the  territory.  In  the 
Virginia  Gazette  of  December  1,  1768,  Hen- 

110 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

derson  must  have  read  with  astonishment  not 
unmixed  with  dismay  that  "the  Six  Nations 
and  all  their  tributaries  have  granted  a  vast 
extent  of  countiy  to  his  majesty,  and  the 
Proprietaries  of  Pennsylvania,  and  settled  an 
advantageous  boundary  line  between  their 
hunting  country  and  this,  and  the  other  colo- 
nies to  the  Southward  as  far  as  the  Cherokee 
River,  for  which  they  received  the  most  valu- 
able present  in  goods  and  dollars  that  was  ever 
given  at  any  conference  since  the  settlement 
of  America."  The  news  was  now  bruited 
about  through  the  colony  of  North  Carolina 
that  the  Cherokees  were  hot  in  their  resentment 
because  the  Northern  Indians,  the  inveterate 
foes  of  the  Cherokees  and  the  perpetual  dis- 
putants for  the  vast  Middle  Ground  of  Ken- 
tucky, had  received  at  the  Treaty  of  Fort 
Stanwix,  November  5,  1768,  an  immense  com- 
pensation from  the  crown  for  the  territory 
which  they,  the  Cherokees,  claimed  from  time 
immemorial.®^  Only  three  v/eeks  before,  John 
Stuart,  Superintendent  for  Indian  Aifairs  in 
the  Southern  Department,  had  negotiated  with 

111 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

the  Cherokees  the  Treaty  of  Hard  Labor, 
South  CaroHna  (October  14th) ,  by  which  Gov- 
ernor Tryon's  line  of  1767,  from  Reedy  River 
to  Tryon  Mountain,  was  continued  direct  to 
Colonel  Chiswell's  mine,  the  present  Wythe- 
ville,  Virginia,  and  thence  in  a  straight  line  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha.^*'  Thus  at 
the  close  of  the  year  1768  the  crown  through 
both  royal  governor  and  superintendent  of  In- 
dian affairs  acknowledged  in  fair  and  oj^en 
treaty  the  right  of  the  Cherokees,  whose 
Tennessee  villages  guarded  the  gateway,  to  the 
valley  lands  east  of  the  mountain  barrier  as 
well  as  to  the  dim  mid-region  of  Kentucky. 
In  the  very  act  of  negotiating  the  Treaty  of 
Fort  Stanwix,  Sir  William  Johnson  privately 
acknowledged  that  possession  of  the  trans- 
Alleghany  could  be  legally  obtained  only  by 
extinguishing  the  title  of  the  Cherokees.^^ 

These  conflicting  claims  soon  led  to  colli- 
sions between  the  Indians  and  the  company's 
settlers.  In  the  spring  of  1769  occurred  one 
of  those  incidents  in  the  westward  advance 
which,  though  slight  in  itself,  was  to  have  a 

112 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

definite  bearing  upon  the  course  of  events  in 
later  years.  In  pursuance  of  his  policy,  as 
agent  of  the  Loyal  Land  Company,  of  pro- 
moting settlement  upon  the  company's  lands. 
Dr.  Thomas  Walker,  who  had  visited  Powell's 
Valley  the  preceding  year  and  come  into  pos- 
session of  a  very  large  tract  there,  simultane- 
ously made  proposals  to  one  party  of  men  in- 
cluding the  Kirtleys,  Captain  Rucker,  and 
others,  and  to  another  party  led  by  Joseph 
Martin,  trader  of  Orange  County,  Virginia, 
afterward  a  striking  figure  in  the  Old  South- 
west. The  fevered  race  by  these  bands  of 
eighteenth-century  "sooners"  for  possession  of 
an  early  "  Cherokee  Strip"  was  won  by  the 
latter  band,  who  at  once  took  possession  and 
began  to  clear;  so  that  when  the  Kirtleys  ar- 
rived, Martin  coolly  handed  them  "a  letter 
from  Dr.  Walker  that  informed  them  that  if 
we  got  to  the  valley  first,  we  were  to  have 
21,000  acres  of  land,  and  they  were  not  to 
interfere  with  us."  Martin  and  his  compan- 
ions were  delighted  with  the  beautiful  valley 
at  the  base  of  the  Cumberland,  quickly  "eat 

113 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

and  destroyed  23  deer — 15  bears — 2  buffaloes 
and  a  gi-eat  quantity  of  turkeys,"  and  enter- 
tained gentlemen  from  Virginia  and  Maryland 
who  desired  to  settle  more  than  a  hundred  fam- 
ilies there.  The  company  reckoned,  however, 
without  their  hosts,  the  Cherokees,  who,  forti- 
fied by  the  treaty  of  Hard  Labor  (1768)  which 
left  this  country  within  the  Indian  reservation, 
were  determined  to  drive  Martin  and  his  com- 
pany out.  While  hunting  on  the  Cumberland 
River,  northwest  of  Cumberland  Gap,  Martin 
and  his  company  were  surrounded  and  dis- 
armed by  a  party  of  Cherokees  who  said  they 
had  orders  from  Cameron,  the  royal  agent,  to 
rob  all  white  men  hunting  on  their  lands. 
When  Martin  and  his  party  arrived  at  their  sta- 
tion in  Powell's  Valley,  they  found  it  broken 
up  and  their  goods  stolen  by  the  Indians,  which 
left  them  no  recourse  but  to  return  to  the 
settlements  in  Virginia.  It  was  not  until  six 
years  later  that  Martin,  under  the  stable  in- 
fluence of  the  Transylvania  Company,  was  en- 
abled to  return  to  this  spot  and  erect  there 

114 


I 


THE  LAND  COMPANIES 

the  station  which  was  to  play  an  integral  part 
in  the  progress  of  westward  expansion.^^ 

Before  going  on  to  relate  Boone's  explora- 
tions of  Kentucky  under  the  auspices  of  the 
land  company,  it  will  be  convenient  to  tui*n 
back  for  a  moment  and  give  some  account  of 
other  hunters  and  explorers  who  visited  that 
territory  between  the  time  of  its  discovery  by 
Walker  and  Gist  and  the  advent  of  Boone. 


116 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   LONG   HUNTERS   IN    THE   TWILIGHT   ZONE 

The  long  Hunters  principally  resided  in  the  upper  coun- 
tries of  Virginia  &  North  Carolina  on  New  River  &  Holston 
River,  and  when  they  intended  to  malce  a  long  Hunt  (as 
they  calld  it)  they  Collected  near  the  head  of  Holston  near 
whare  Abingdon  now  stands.  .  .  . 

— Gekeral  William  Hall. 

BEFORE  the  coming  of  Walker  and  Gist 
in  1750  and  1751  respectively,  the  region 
now  called  Kentucky  had,  as  far  as  we  know, 
been  twice  visited  by  the  French,  once  in  1729 
when  Chaussegros  de  Lery  and  his  party  vis- 
ited the  Big  Bone*  Lick,  and  again  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1749  when  the  Baron  de  Longueuil 
with  four  hundred  and  fifty-two  Frenchmen 
and  Indians,  going  to  join  Bienville  in  an  ex- 
pedition against  "the  Cherickees  and  other  In- 
dians lying  at  the  back  of  Carolina  and 
Georgia,"  doubtless  encamped  on  the  Ken- 
tucky shore  of  the  Ohio.     Kentucky  was  also 

116 


LONG  HUNTERS  IN  THE  TWILIGHT  ZONE 

traversed  by  John  Peter  Sailing  with  his  three 
adventurous  companions  in  their  journey 
through  the  Middle  West  in  1742.  But  all 
these  early  visits,  including  the  memorable  ex- 
peditions of  Walker  and  Gist,  were  so  little 
known  to  the  general  public  that  when  John 
Filson  wrote  the  history  of  Kentucky  in  1784 
he  attributed  its  discovery  to  James  McBride 
in  1754.  More  influential  upon  the  course  of 
westward  expansion  was  an  adventure  which 
occurred  in  1752,  the  very  year  in  which  the 
Boones  settled  down  in  their  Yadkin  home. 

In  the  autumn  of  1752,  a  Pennsylvania 
trader,  John  Findlay,  with  three  or  four  com- 
panions, descended  the  Ohio  River  in  a  canoe 
as  far  as  the  falls  at  the  present  Louisville, 
Kentucky,  and  accompanied  a  party  of  Shawa- 
noes  to  their  town  of  Es-kip-pa-ki-thi-ki, 
eleven  miles  east  of  what  is  now  Winchester. 
This  was  the  site  of  the  "Indian  Old  Corn 
Field,"  the  Iroquois  name  for  which  ("the 
place  of  many  fields,"  or  "prairie")  was  Ken- 
ta-ke,  whence  came  the  name  of  the  state. 
Five  miles  east  of  this  spot,  where  still  may 

117 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

be  seen  a  mound  and  an  ellipse  showing  the 
outline  of  the  stockade,  is  the  famous  Pilot 
Knob,  from  the  summit  of  which  the  fields 
surrounding  the  town  lie  visible  in  their  smooth 
expanse.  During  Findlay's  stay  at  the  In- 
dian town  other  traders  from  Pennsylvania 
and  Virginia,  who  reported  that  they  were  "on 
their  return  from  trading  with  the  Cutta.was 
(Catawbas),  a  nation  who  live  in  the  Territo- 
ries of  Carolina,"  assembled  in  the  vicinity  in 
January,  1753.  Here,  as  the  result  of  dis- 
putes arising  from  their  barter,  they  were  set 
upon  and  captured  by  a  large  party  of  strag- 
gling Indians  (Coghnawagas  from  Montreal) 
on  January  26th;  but  Findlay  and  another 
trader  named  James  Lowry  were  so  fortunate 
as  to  escape  and  return  through  the  wilder- 
ness to  the  Pennsylvania  settlements.^^  The 
incident  is  of  important  historic  significance; 
for  it  was  from  these  traders,  who  must  have 
followed  the  Great  Warriors'  Path  to  the  coun- 
try of  the  Catawbas,  that  Findlay  learned  of 
the  Ouasioto  (Cumberland)  Gap  traversed  by 
the  Indian  path.     His  reminiscences — of  this 

118 


LONG  HUNTERS  IN  THE  TWILIGHT  ZONE 

gateway  to  Kentucky,  of  the  site  of  the  old 
Indian  town  on  Lulbegrud  Creek,  a  tributary 
of  the  Red  River,  and  of  the  Pilot  Knob — 
were  sixteen  years  later  to  fire  Boone  to  his 
great  tour  of  exploration  in  behalf  of  the 
Transylvania  Company. 

During  the  next  two  decades,  largely  be- 
cause of  the  hostility  of  the  savage  tribes,  only 
a  few  traders  and  hunters  from  the  east  ranged 
through  the  trans- Alleghany.  But  in  1761,  a 
party  of  hunters  led  by  a  rough  frontiersman, 
Elisha  Walden,  penetrated  into  Powell's  Val- 
ley, followed  the  Indian  trail  through  Cumber- 
land Gap,  explored  the  Cumberland  River, 
and  finally  reached  the  Laurel  Mountain 
where,  encountering  a  party  of  Indians,  they 
deemed  it  expedient  to  return.  With  Walden 
went  Henry  Scaggs,  afterward  explorer  for 
the  Henderson  Land  Company,  William 
Blevens  and  Charles  Cox,  the  famous  Virginia 
hunters,  one  Newman,  and  some  fifteen  other 
stout  pioneers.  Their  itineraiy  may  be  traced 
from  the  names  given  to  natural  objects  in 
honor  of  members   of  the   party — Walden's 

119 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Mountain  and  Walden's  Creek,  Scaggs'  Ridge 
and  Newman's  Ridge.  Following  the  peace 
of  1763,  which  made  travel  in  this  region  mod- 
erately safe  once  more,  the  English  proceeded 
to  occupy  the  territory  which  they  had  won. 
In  1765  George  Croghan  with  a  small  party,  on 
the  way  to  prepare  the  inhabitants  of  the  Illi- 
nois country  for  transfer  to  English  sover- 
eignty, visited  the  Great  Bone  Licks  of  Ken- 
tucky (May  30th,  31st)  ;  and  a  year  later  Cap- 
tain Harry  Gordon,  chief  engineer  in  the 
Western  Department  in  North  America,  vis- 
ited and  minutely  described  the  same  licks  and 
the  falls.  But  these,  and  numerous  other 
water- journeys  and  expeditions  of  which  no 
records  were  kept,  though  interesting  enough 
in  themselves,  had  little  bearing  u23on  the  larger 
phases  of  westward  expansion  and  coloniza- 
tion. 

The  decade  opening  with  the  year  1765  is 
the  epoch  of  bold  and  ever  bolder  exploration 
— the  more  adventurous  frontiersmen  of  the 
border  pushing  deep  into  the  wilderness  in 
search  of  game,  lured  on  by  the  excitements  of 

120 


LONG  HUNTERS  IN  THE  TWILIGHT  ZONE 

the  chase  and  the  profit  to  be  derived  from  the 
sale  of  peltries.  In  midsummer,  1766,  Cap- 
tain James  Smith,  Joshua  Horton,  Uriah 
Stone,  William  Baker,  and  a  young  mu- 
latto slave  passed  through  Cumberland  Gap, 
hunted  through  the  country  south  of  the 
Cherokee  and  along  the  Cumberland  and 
Tennessee  rivers,  and  as  Smith  reports  "found 
no  vestige  of  any  white  man."  During  the 
same  year  a  party  of  five  hunters  from 
South  Carolina,  led  by  Isaac  Lindsey,  pene- 
trated the  Kentucky  wilderness  to  the  tribu- 
tary of  the  Cumberland,  named  Stone's 
River  by  the  former  party,  for  one  of  their 
number.  Here  they  encountered  two  men, 
who  were  among  the  greatest  of  the  western 
pioneers,  and  were  destined  to  leave  their 
names  in  historic  association  with  the  early 
settlement  of  Kentucky — James  Harrod  and 
Michael  Stoner,  a  German,  both  of  whom  had 
descended  the  Ohio  from  Fort  Pitt.  With  the 
year  1769  began  those  longer  and  more  ex- 
tended excursions  into  the  interior  which  were 
to  result  in  conveying  at  last  to  the  outside 

121 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

world  graphic  and  detailed  information  con- 
cerning "the  wonderful  new  country  of  Can- 
tucky."  In  the  late  spring  of  this  year  Han- 
cock and  Richard  Taylor  (the  latter  the  father 
of  President  Zachary  Taylor),  Abraham 
Hempinstall,  and  one  B'arbour,  all  true-blue 
frontiersmen,  left  their  homes  in  Orange 
County,  Virginia,  and  hunted  extensively  in 
Kentucky  and  Arkansas.  Two  of  the  party 
traveled  through  Georgia  and  East  and  West 
Florida;  while  the  other  two  hunted  on  the 
Washita  during  the  winter  of  1770-1.  Ex- 
plorations of  this  type  became  increasingly 
hazardous  as  the  animosity  of  the  Indians  in- 
creased ;  and  from  this  time  onward  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  almost  all  the  parties  of  roving 
hunters  suffered  capture  or  attack  by  the 
crafty  red  men.  In  this  same  year  Major 
John  ^IcCuUoch,  living  on  the  south  branch 
of  the  Potomac,  set  out  accompanied  by  a 
white  man-servant  and  a  negro,  to  explore  the 
western  country.  While  passing  down  the 
Ohio  from  Pittsburgh  McCulloch  was  cap- 
tured by  the  Indians  near  the  mouth  of  the 

122 


LONG  HUNTERS  IN  THE  TWILIGHT  ZONE 

Wabash  and  carried  to  the  present  site  of 
Terre  Haute,  Indiana.  Set  free  after  four 
or  five  months,  he  journeyed  in  company  with 
some  French  voyageurs  first  to  Natchez  and 
then  to  New  Orleans,  whence  he  made  the  sea 
voyage  to  Philadelphia.  Somewhat  later, 
Benjamin  Cleveland  (afterward  famous  in  the 
Revolution) ,  attended  by  four  companions,  set 
out  from  his  home  on  the  upper  Yadkin  to 
explore  the  Kentucky  wilderness.  After  pass- 
ing through  Cumberland  Gap,  they  encoun- 
tered a  band  of  Cherokees  who  plundered  them 
of  everything  they  had,  even  to  their  hats  and 
shoes,  and  ordered  them  to  leave  the  Indian 
hunting-gi'ounds.  On  their  return  journey 
they  almost  starved,  and  Cleveland,  who  was 
reluctantly  forced  to  kill  his  faithful  little 
hunting-dog,  was  wont  to  declare  in  after  years 
that  it  was  the  sweetest  meat  he  ever  ate. 

Fired  to  adventure  by  the  glowing  accounts 
brought  back  by  Uriah  Stone,  a  much  more 
formidable  band  than  any  that  had  hitherto 
ventured  westward — including  Uriah  Stone  as 
pilot,  Gasper  Mansker,  John  Rains,  the  Bled- 

123 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

soes,  and  a  dozen  others — assembled  in  June, 
1769,  in  the  New  River  region.  "Each  Man 
carried  two  horses,"  says  an  early  pioneer  in 
describing  one  of  these  parties,  "traps,  a  large 
supply  of  powder  and  led,  and  a  small  hand 
vise  and  bellows,  files  and  screw  plate  for  the 
purpose  of  fixing  the  guns  if  any  of  them 
should  get  out  of  fix."  Passing  through  Cum- 
berland Gap,  they  continued  their  long  jour- 
ney until  they  reached  Price's  Meadow,  in  the 
present  Wayne  County,  Kentucky,  where  they 
established  their  encampment.  In  the  course 
of  their  explorations,  during  which  they  gave 
various  names  to  prominent  natural  features, 
they  estabhshed  their  "station  camp"  on  a  creek 
in  Sumner  County,  Tennessee,  whence  origi- 
nated the  name  of  Station  Camp  Creek. 
I§aac  Bledsoe  and  Gasper  Mansker,  agreeing 
to  travel  from  here  in  opposite  directions  along 
a  buffalo  trace  passing  near  the  camp,  each 
succeeded  in  discovering  the  famous  salt-lick 
which  bears  his  name — namely  Bledsoe's  Lick 
and  Mansker's  Lick.  The  flat  surrounding 
the  lick,  about  one  hundred  acres  in  extent, 


LONG  HUNTERS  IN  THE  TWILIGHT  ZONE 

discovered  by  Bledsoe,  according  to  his  own 
statement  "was  principally  Covered  with  buf- 
felows  in  every  direction — not  hundreds  but 
thousands."  As  he  sat  on  his  horse,  he  shot 
down  two  deer  in  the  lick;  but  the  buffaloes 
blindly  trod  them  in  the  mud.  They  did  not 
mind  him  and  his  horse  except  when  the  wind 
blew  the  scent  in  their  nostrils,  when  they 
would  break  and  run  in  droves.  Indians  often 
lurked  in  the  neighbourhood  of  these  hunters 
— plundering  their  camp,  robbing  them,  and 
even  shooting  down  one  of  their  number,  Rob- 
ert Crockett,  from  ambush.  After  many 
trials  and  vicissitudes,  which  included  a  jour- 
ney to  the  Spanish  Natchez  and  the  loss  of  a 
great  mass  of  peltries  when  they  were  plun- 
dered by  Piomingo  and  a  war  party  of  Chicka- 
saws,  they  finally  reached  home  in  the  late 
spring  of  1770.°° 

The  most  notable  expedition  of  this  period, 
projected  under  the  auspices  of  two  bold  lead- 
ers extraordinarily  skilled  in  woodcraft,  Joseph 
Drake  and  Henry  Scaggs,  was  organized  in 
the  early   autumn  of   1770.     This   imposing 

125 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

band  of  stalwart  hunters  from  the  New  River 
and  Holston  country,  some  forty  in  number, 
garbed  in  hunting  shirts,  leggings,  and  mocca- 
sins, with  three  pack-horses  to  each  man,  rifles, 
ammunition,  traps,  dogs,  blankets,  and  salt, 
pushed  boldly  through  Cumberland  Gap  into 
the  heart  of  what  was  later  justly  named  the 
"Dark  and  Bloody  Ground"  (see  Chapter 
XIV) — "not  doubting,"  says  an  old  border 
chronicler,  "that  they  were  to  be  encountered 
by  Indians,  and  to  subsist  on  game."  From 
the  duration  of  their  absence  from  home,  they 
received  the  name  of  the  Long  Hunters — ^the 
romantic  appellation  by  which  they  are  known 
in  the  pioneer  history  of  the  Old  Southwest. 
Many  natural  objects  were  named  by  this 
party — in  particular  Dick's  River,  after  the 
noted  Cherokee  hunter.  Captain  Dick,  who, 
pleased  to  be  recognized  by  Charles  Scaggs, 
told  the  Long  Hunters  that  on  his  river,  point- 
ing it  out,  they  would  find  meat  plenty — add- 
ing with  laconic  significance:  "Kill  it  and  go 
home."  From  the  Knob  Lick,  in  Lincoln 
County,  as  reported  by  a  member  of  the  party, 

126 


LONG  HUNTERS  IN  THE  TWILIGHT  ZONE 

"thej'^  beheld  largely  over  a  thousand  animals, 
including  buffaloe,  elk,  bear,  and  deer,  with 
many  wild  turkies  scattered  among  them;  all 
quite  restless,  some  playing,  and  others  busily 
employed  in  licking  the  earth.  .  .  .  The  buffa- 
loe and  other  animals  had  so  eaten  away  the 
soil,  that  they  could,  in  places,  go  entirely  un- 
derground." Upon  the  return  of  a  detach- 
ment to  Virginia,  fourteen  fearless  hunters 
chose  to  remain;  and  one  day,  during  the  ab- 
sence of  some  of  the  band  upon  a  long  explor- 
ing trip,  the  camp  was  attacked  by  a  straggling 
party  of  Indians  under  Will  Emery,  a  half- 
breed  Cherokee.  Two  of  the  hunters  were  car- 
ried into  captivity  and  never  heard  of  again; 
a  third  managed  to  escape.  In  embittered 
commemoration  of  the  plunder  of  the  camp  and 
the  destruction  of  the  peltries,  they  inscribed 
upon  a  poplar,  which  had  lost  its  bark,  this 
emphatic  record,  followed  by  their  names : 

2300  Deer  Skins  lost     Ruination  by  God  ^^ 

Undismayed  by  this  depressing  stroke  of 
fortune,  they  continued  their  hunt  in  the  di- 

127 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

rection  of  the  lick  which  Bledsoe  had  discov- 
ered the  preceding  year.  Shortly  after  this 
discovery,  a  French  voyageur  from  the  Illinois 
who  had  hunted  and  traded  in  this  region  for 
a  decade,  Timothe  de  Monbreun,  subsequently 
famous  in  the  history  of  Tennessee,  had  visited 
the  lick  and  killed  an  enormous  number  of 
buffaloes  for  their  tallow  and  tongues  with 
which  he  and  his  companion  loaded  a  keel  boat 
and  descended  the  Cumberland.  An  early 
pioneer,  William  Hall,  learned  from  Isaac 
Bledsoe  that  when  "the  long  hunters  Crossed 
the  ridge  and  came  down  on  Bledsoe's  Creek 
in  four  or  five  miles  of  the  Lick  the  Cane  had 
grown  up  so  thick  in  the  woods  that  they 
thought  thej'  had  mistaken  the  place  until  they 
Came  to  the  Lick  and  saw  what  had  been  done. 
.  .  .  One  could  walk  for  several  hundred  yards 
a  round  the  Lick  and  in  the  Mck  on  buffellows 
Skuls,  &  bones  and  the  whole  flat  round  the 
Lick  was  bleached  with  buffellows  bones,  and 
they  found  out  the  Cause  of  the  Canes  grow- 
ing up  so  suddenly  a  few  miles  around  the 

128 


LONG  HUNTERS  IN  THE  TWILIGHT  ZONE 

Lick  which  was  in  Consequence  of  so  many 
buffellows  being  killed." 

This  expedition  was  of  genuine  importance, 
opening  the  eyes  of  the  frontiersmen  to  the 
charms  of  the  country  and  influencing  many 
to  settle  subsequently  in  the  West — some  in 
Tennessee,  some  in  Kentucky.  The  elaborate 
and  detailed  information  brought  back  by 
Henry  Scaggs  exerted  an  appreciable  influ- 
ence, no  doubt,  in  accelerating  the  plans  of 
Richard  Henderson  and  Company  for  the 
acquisition  and  colonization  of  the  trans- Alle- 
ghany. But  while  the  "Long  Hunters"  were 
in  Tennessee  and  Kentucky  the  same  region 
was  being  more  extensively  and  systematically 
explored  by  Daniel  Boone.  To  his  life,  char- 
acter, and  attainments,  as  the  typical  "long 
hunter"  and  the  most  influential  pioneer  we 
may  now  turn  our  particular  attention. 


129 


CHAPTER  IX 

DANIEL  BOONE  AND  WILDERNESS  EXPLORATION 

Here,  where  the  hand  of  violence  shed  the  blood  of  the 
innocent;  where  the  horrid  yells  of  the  savages,  and  the  groans 
of  the  distressed,  sounded  in  our  ears,  we  now  hear  the  praises 
and  adorations  of  our  Creator;  where  wretched  wigwams 
stood,  the  miserable  abodes  of  savages,  we  behold  the  foim- 
dations  of  cities  laid,  that,  in  all  probability,  will  equal  the 
glory  of  the  greatest  upon  earth. 

— Daniel  Boone,  1784. 

THE  wandering  life  of  a  border  Nimrod 
in  a  surpassingly  beautiful  country  teem- 
ing with  game  was  the  ideal  of  the  frontiers- 
man of  the  eighteenth  centuiy.  As  early  as 
1728,  while  running  the  dividing  line  between 
North  Carolina  and  Virginia,  William  Byrd 
encountered  along  the  North  Carolina  frontier 
the  typical  figure  of  the  professional  hunter: 
"a  famous  Woodsman,  call'd  Epaphroditus 
Bainton.  This  Forester  Spends  all  his  time 
in  ranging  the  Woods,  and  is  said  to  make 
great  Havock  among  the  Deer,  and  other  In- 

130 


DANIEL  BOONE  AND  EXPLORATION 

habitants  of  the  Forest,  not  much  wilder  than: 
himself."  By  the  middle  of  the  century,  as  he 
was  threading  his  way  through  the  Carolina 
piedmiont  zone,  the  hunter's  paradise  of  the 
Yadkin  and  Catawba  country,  Bishop  Spang- 
enberg  found  ranging  there  many  hunters,  liv- 
ing like  Indians,  who  killed  thousands  of  deer 
each  year  and  sold  the  skins  in  the  local  mar- 
kets or  to  the  fur-traders  from  Virginia 
whose  heavy  pack-trains  with  their  tinkling 
bells  constantly  traversed  the  course  of  the 
Great  Trading  Path. 

The  superlative  skill  of  one  of  these  hunters, 
both  as  woodsman  and  marksman,  was  pro- 
verbial along  the  border.  The  name  of  Daniel 
Boone  became  synonymous  with  expert  hunts- 
manship  and  almost  uncanny  wisdom  in  forest 
lore.  The  bottoms  of  the  creek  near  the 
Boone  home,  three  miles  west  of  present 
Mocksville,  contained  a  heavy  growth  of  beech, 
which  dropped  large  quantities  of  its  rich  nuts 
or  mast,  greatly  relished  by  bears;  and  this 
creek  received  its  name,  Bear  Creek,  because 
Daniel  and  his  father  killed  in  its  rich  bottoms 

131 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

ninety-nine  bears  in  a  single  hunting-season. 
After  living  for  a  time  with  his  young  wife, 
Rebecca  Bryan,  in  a  cabin  in  his  father's  yard, 
Daniel  built  a  home  of  his  own  upon  a  tract 
of  land,  purchased  from  his  father  on  Octo- 
ber 12,  1759,  and  lying  on  Sugar  Tree,  a  trib- 
utary of  Dutchman's  Creek.  Here  he  dwelt 
for  the  next  five  years,  with  the  exception  of 
the  period  of  his  temporary  removal  to  Vir- 
ginia during  the  terrible  era  of  the  Indiasi  war. 
Most  of  his  time  during  the  autumn  and  win- 
ter, when  he  was  not  engaged  in  wagoning  or 
farming,  he  spent  in  long  hunting- journeys 
into  the  mountains  to  the  west  and  northwest. 
During  the  hunting-season  of  1760  he  struck 
deeper  than  ever  before  into  the  western  moun- 
tain region  and  encamped  in  a  natural  rocky 
shelter  amidst  fine  hunting-gi'ounds,  in  what 
is  now  Washington  County  in  east  Tennessee. 
Of  the  scores  of  inscriptions  commemorative 
of  his  hunting-feats,  which  Boone  with  pardon- 
able pride  was  accustomed  throughout  his  life- 
time to  engrave  with  his  hunting-knife  upon 
trees  and  rocks,  the  earliest  known  is  found 

132 


D.  Boon 

A.  BAR 

On 

Tree 

The 

yEAR 

1760 

DANIEL  BOONE  AND  EXPLORATION 

upon  a  leaning  beech  tree,  only  recently  fallen, 
near  his  camp  and  the  creek  which  since  that 
day  has  borne  his  name.  This  is  a  character- 
istic and  enduring  record  in  the  history  of 
American  exploration : 


CillED 


in 


Late  in  the  summer  of  the  following  year 
Boone  marched  under  the  command  of  the 
noted  Indian-fighter  of  the  border,  Colonel 
Hugh  Waddell,  in  his  campaign  against  the 
Cherokees.  From  the  lips  of  Waddell,  who 
was  outspoken  in  his  condemnation  of  Byrd's 
futile  .delays  in  road-cutting  and  fort-building, 
Boone  learned  the  true  secret  of  success  in 
Indian  warfare,  which  was  lost  upon  Brad- 
dock,  Forbes,  and  later  St.  Clair:  that  the  art 
of  defeating  red  men  was  to  deal  them  a  sud- 
den and  unexpected  blow,  before  they  had  time 
either  to  learn  the  strength  of  'the  .force  em- 

133 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

ployed  against  them  or  to  lay  with  subtle  craft 
their  artful  ambuscade. 

In  the  late  autumn  of  1761,  Daniel  Boone 
and  Nathaniel  Gist,  the  son  of  Washington's 
famous  guide,  who  were  both  serving  under 
Waddell,  temporarily  detached  themselves 
from  his  command  and  led  a  small  party  on  a 
"long  hunt"  in  the  Valley  of  the  Holston. 
While  encamping  near  the  site  of  Black's  Fort, 
subsequently  built,  they  were  violently  assailed 
by  a  pack  of  fierce  wolves  which  they  had  con- 
siderable difficulty  in  beating  off ;  and  from  this 
incident  the  locality  became  known  as  Wolf 
Hills  (now  Abingdon,  Virginia)  .^^ 

From  this  time  forward  Boone's  roving  in- 
stincts had  full  sway.  For  many  months  each 
year  he  threaded  his  way  through  that  mar- 
velously  beautiful  country  of  western  North 
Carolina  felicitously  described  as  the  Switzer- 
land of  America.  Boone's  love  of  solitude 
and  the  murmuring  forest  was  surely  inspired 
by  the  phenomenal  beauties  of  the  country 
through  which  he  roamed  at  will.  Blowing 
Rock  on  one  arm  of  a  great  horseshoe  of  moun- 

134 


DANIEL  BOONE  AND  EXPLORATION 

tains  and  Tryon  Mountain  upon  the  other 
arm,  overlooked  an  enormous,  primeval  bowl, 
studded  by  a  thousand  emerald-clad  eminences. 
There  was  the  Pilot  Mountain,  the  towering 
and  isolated  pile  which  from  time  immemorial 
had  served  the  aborigines  as  a  guide  in  their 
forest  wanderings;  there  was  the  dizzy  height 
of  the  Roan  on  the  border;  there  was  Mt. 
Mitchell,  portentous  in  its  grandeur,  the  tallest 
peak  on  the  continent  east  of  the  Rockies ;  and 
there  was  the  Grandfather,  the  oldest  moun- 
tain on  earth  according  to  geologists,  of  which 
it  has  been  written: 

Oldest  of  all  terrestrial  things — still  holding 

Thy  wrinkled  forehead  high ; 
Whose  every  seam,  earth's  history  enfolding, 

Grim  science  doth  defy ! 

Thou  caught'st  the  far  faint  ray  from  Sirius  rising, 
When  through  space  first  was  hurled 

The  primal  gloom  of  ancient  voids  surprising. 
This  atom,  called  the  World! 

What  more  gratifying  to  the  eye  of  the  wan- 
derer than  the  luxuriant  vegetation  and  lavish 

135 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

profusion  of  the  gorgeous  flowers  upon  the 
mountain  slopes,  radiant  rhododendron,  rose- 
bay,  and  laurel,  and  the  azalea  rising  hke 
flame;  or  the  rare  beauties  of  the  water — the 
cataract  of  Linville,  taking  its  shimmering  leap 
into  the  gorge,  and  that  romantic  river  poeti- 
cally celebrated  in  the  lines: 

Swannanoa,  nymph  of  beauty, 
I  would  woo  thee  in  my  rhyme, 
Wildest,  brightest,  loveliest  river 
Of  our  sunny  Southern  clime. 

*■  *  * 

Gone  forever  from  the  borders 
But  immortal  in  thy  name. 
Are  the  Red  Men  of  the  forest 
Be  thou  keeper  of  their  fame ! 
Paler  races  dwell  beside  thee, 
Celt  and  Saxon  till  thy  lands 
Wedding  use  unto  thy  beauty — 
Linking  over  thee  their  hands. 

The  long  rambling  excursions  which  Boone 
made  through  western  North  Carolina  and 
eastern  Tennessee  enabled  him  to  explore 
every  nook  and  corner  of  the  rugged  and  beau- 
tiful mountain  region.     Among  the  compnn- 

136 


DANIEL  BOONE  AND  EXPLORATION 

ions  and  contemporaries  with  whom  he  hunted 
and  explored  the  country  were  his  little  son 
James  and  his  brother  Jesse ;  the  Linville  who 
gave  the  name  to  the  beautiful  falls;  Julius 
Caesar  Dugger,  whose  rock  house  stood  near 
the  head  of  Elk  Creek;  and  Nathaniel  Gist, 
who  described  for  him  the  lofty  gateway  to 
Kentucky,  through  which  Christopher  Gist 
had  passed  in  1751.  Boone  had  already  heard 
of  this  gateway,  from  Findlay,  and  it  was  one 
of  the  secret  and  cherished  ambitions  of  his 
life  to  scale  the  mountain  wall  of  the  Appala- 
chians and  to  reach  that  high  portal  of  the 
Cumberland  which  beckoned  to  the  mysterious 
new  Eden  beyond.  Although  hunting  was  an 
endless  delight  to  Boone  he  was  haunted  in  the 
midst  of  this  pleasure,  as  was  Kipling's  Ex- 
plorer, by  the  lure  of  the  undiscovered : 

Till  a  voice  as  bad  as  conscience,  rang  interminable 

changes 
On  one  everlasting  whisper  day  and  night  repeated 

— so: 
'Something  hidden.     Go  and  find  it.     Go  and  look 

behind  the  ranges — 

137 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

'Something  lost  behind  the  ranges.     Lost  and  wait- 
ing for  you.     Go.' 

Of  Boone's  preliminary  explorations  for  the 
land  company  known  as  Richard  Henderson 
and  Company,  an  account  has  already  been 
given;  and  the  delay  in  following  them  up 
has  been  touched  on  and  in  part  explained. 
Meanwhile  Boone  transferred  his  efforts  for 
a  time  to  another  field.  Toward  the  close 
of  the  summer  of  1765  a  party  consisting 
of  Major  John  Field,  William  Hill,  one 
Slaughter,  and  two  others,  all  from  Culpeper 
County,  Virginia,  visited  Boone  and  induced 
him  to  accompany  them  on  the  "long  Journey" 
to  Florida,  whither  they  were  attracted  by  the 
liberal  offer  of  Colonel  James  Grant,  governor 
of  the  eastern  section,  the  Florida  of  to-day. 
On  this  long  and  arduous  expedition  they  suf- 
fered many  hardships  and  endured  many  pri- 
vations, found  little  game,  and  on  one  occa- 
sion narrowly  escaped  starvation.  They  ex- 
plored Florida  from  St.  Augustine  to  Pensa- 
cola ;  and  Boone,  who  relished  fresh  scenes  and 
a  new  environment,  purchased  a  house  and  lot 

138 


DANIEL  BOONE  AND  EXPLORATION 

in  Pensacola  in  anticipation  of  removal  thither. 
But  upon  his  return  home,  finding  his  wife  un- 
willing to  go,  Boone  once  more  turned  his 
eager  eye  toward  the  West,  that  mysterious 
and  alluring  region  beyond  the  great  range, 
the  fabled  paradise  of  Kentucky. 

The  following  year  four  young  men  from 
the  Yadkin,  Benjamin  Cutbird,  John  Stewart 
(Boone's  brother-in-law  who  afterwards  ac- 
companied him  to  Kentucky),  John  Baker, 
and  James  Ward  made  a  remarkable  journey 
to  the  westward,  crossing  the  Appalachian 
mountain  chain  over  some  unknown  route,  and 
finally  reaching  the  Mississippi.  The  signifi- 
cance of  the  journey,  in  its  bearing  upon  west- 
ward expansion,  inheres  in  the  fact  that  while 
for  more  than  half  a  century  the  English  trad- 
ers from  South  Carolina  had  been  winning 
their  way  to  the  Mississippi  along  the  lower 
routes  and  Indian  trails,  this  was  the  first  party 
from  either  of  the  Carolinas,  as  far  as  is  known, 
that  ever  reached  the  Mississippi  by  crossing 
the  great  mountain  barrier.  When  Cutbird, 
a  superb   woodsman  and  veritable   Leather- 

139 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

stocking,  narrated  to  Boone  the  story  of  his 
adventures,  it  only  confirmed  Boone  in  his 
determination  to  find  the  passage  through  the 
mountain  chain  leading  to  the  Mesopotamia  of 
Kentucky. 

Such  an  enterprise  was  attended  by  terrible 
dangers.  During  1766  and  1767  the  steady 
encroachments  of  the  white  settlers  upon  the 
ancestral  domain  which  the  Indians  reserved 
for  their  imperial  hunting-preserve  aroused  bit- 
ter feelings  of  resentment  among  the  red  men. 
Bloody  reprisal  was  often  the  sequel  to  such 
encroachment.  The  vast  region  of  Tennessee 
and  the  trans-Alleghany  was  a  twihght  zone, 
through  which  the  savages  roamed  at  will. 
From  time  to  time  war  parties  of  northern  In- 
dians, the  inveterate  foes  of  the  Cherokees, 
scouted  through  this  no-man's  land  and  even 
penetrated  into  the  western  region  of  North 
Carolina,  committing  murders  and  depreda- 
tions upon  the  Cherokees  and  the  whites  indis- 
criminately. During  the  summer  of  1766, 
while  Boone's  friend  and  close  connection. 
Captain  William  Linville,  his  son  John,  and 

140 


DANIEL  BOONE  AND  EXPLORATION 

another  young  man,  named  John  Williams, 
were  in  camp  some  ten  miles  below  Linville 
Falls,  they  were  unexpectedly  fired  upon  by 
a  hostile  band  of  Northern  Indians,  and 
before  they  had  time  to  fire  a  shot,  a  second 
volley  killed  both  the  Linvilles  and  severely 
wounded  Williams,  who  after  extraordinary 
sufferings  finally  reached  the  settlements.^^ 
In  May,  1767,  four  traders  and  a  half-breed 
child  of  one  of  them  were  killed  in  the  Cherokee 
country.  In  the  summer  of  this  year  Gover- 
nor William  Tryon  of  North  Carolina  laid 
out  the  boundary  line  of  the  Cherokees,  and 
upon  his  return  issued  a  proclamation  forbid- 
ding any  purchase  of  land  from  the  Indians 
and  any  issuance  of  grants  for  land  within 
one  mile  of  the  boundary  line.  Despite  this 
wise  precaution,  seven  North  Carolina  hunters 
who  during  the  following  September  had  law- 
lessly ventured  into  the  mountain  region  some 
sixty  miles  beyond  the  boundary  were  fired 
upon,  and  several  of  them  killed,  by  the  resent- 
ful Cherokees."' 

Undismayed  by  these  signs  of  impending 
141 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

danger,  undeterred  even  by  the  tragic  fate  of 
the  Linvilles,  Daniel  Boone,  with  the  deter- 
mination of  the  indomitable  pioneer,  never 
dreamed  of  relinquishing  his  long-cherished  de- 
sign. Discouraged  by  the  steady  disappear- 
ance of  game  under  the  ruthless  attack  of  in- 
numerable hunters,  Boone  continued  to  direct 
his  thoughts  toward  the  project  of  exploring 
the  fair  region  of  Kentucky.  The  adventur- 
ous William  Hill,  to  whom  Boone  communi- 
cated his  purpose,  readily  consented  to  go  with 
him;  and  in  the  autumn  of  1767  Boone  and 
Hill,  accompanied,  it  is  believed,  by  Squire 
Boone,  Daniel's  brother,  set  forth  upon  their 
almost  inconceivably  hazardous  expedition. 
They  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  the  Holston  and  Clinch  rivers  near 
their  sources,  and  finally  reached  the  head 
waters  of  the  West  Fork  of  the  Big  Sandy. 
Surmising  from  its  course  that  this  stream 
must  flow  into  the  Ohio,  they  pushed  on  a 
hundred  miles  to  the  westward  and  finally,  by 
following  a  buffalo  path,  reached  a  salt-spring 
in  what  is  now  Floyd  County,  in  the  extreme 

142 


DANIEL  BOONE  AND  EXPLORATION 

eastern  section  of  Kentucky.  Here  Boone  be- 
held great  droves  of  buffalo  that  visited  the 
salt-spring  to  drink  the  water  or  lick  the  brack- 
ish soil.  After  spending  the  winter  in  hunting 
and  trapping,  the  Boones  and  Hill,  discouraged 
by  the  forbidding  aspect  of  the  hilly  country 
which  with  its  dense  growth  of  laurel  was  ex- 
ceedingly difficult  to  penetrate,  abandoned  all 
hope  of  finding  Kentucky  by  this  route  and 
wended  their  arduous  way  back  to  the  Yadkin. 
The  account  of  Boone's  subsequent  accom- 
plishment of  his  purpose  must  be  postponed 
to  the  next  chapter. 


14S 


CHAPTER  X 

DANIEL   BOONE   IN    KENTUCKY 

He  felt  very  much  as  Columbus  did,  gazing  from  his  caravel 
on  San  Salvador;  as  Cortes,  looking  down  from  the  crest  of 
Ahualco,  on  the  Valley  of  Mexico;  or  Vasco  Nunez,  standing 
alone  on  the  peak  of  Darien,  and  stretching  his  eyes  over  the 
hitherto  undiscovered  waters  of  the  Pacific. 

— William  Gilmore  Simms:     Views  and  Reviews. 

A  CHANCE  acquaintance  formed  by 
Daniel  Boone,  during  the  French  and 
Indian  War,  with  the  Irish  lover  of  adventure, 
John  Findlay,^^  was  the  origin  of  Boone's  cher- 
ished longing  to  reach  the  El  Dorado  of  the 
West.  In  this  slight  incident  we  may  discern 
the  initial  inspiration  for  the  epochal  move- 
ment of  westward  expansion.  Findlay  was  a 
trader  and  horse  peddler,  who  had  early  mi- 
grated to  Carlisle,  Pennsylvania.  He  had 
been  licensed  a  trader  with  the  Indians  in  1747. 
During  the  same  year  he  was  married  to  Eliza- 
beth Harris,  daughter  of  John  Harris,  the  In- 

144< 


DANIEL  BOONE  IN  KENTUCKY 

dian-trader  at  Harris's  Ferry  on  the  Susque- 
hanna River,  after  whom  Harrisbiirg  was 
named.  During  the  next  eight  years  Find- 
lay  carried  on  his  business  of  trading  in  the 
interior.  Upon  the  opening  of  the  French 
and  Indian  War  he  was  probably  among 
"the  young  men  about  Paxtang  who  enlisted 
immediately,"  and  served  as  a  waggoner  in 
Braddock's  expedition.  Over  the  camp-fires, 
during  the  ensuing  campaign  in  1765,  young 
Boone  was  an  eager  listener  to  Findlay's  stir- 
ring narrative  of  'his  adventures  in  the  Ohio 
Valley  and  on  the  wonderfully  beautiful 
levels  of  Kentucky  in  1752.  The  fancies 
aroused  in  his  brooding  mind  by  Findlay's 
moving  recital  and  his  description  of  an  an- 
cient passage  through  the  Ouasioto  or  Cum- 
berland Gap  and  along  the  course  of  the  War- 
rior's Path,  inspired  him  with  an  irrepressible 
longing  to  reach  that  alluring  promised  land 
which  was  the  perfect  reahzation  of  the  hunt- 
er's paradise. 

Thirteen  years  later,  while  engaged  in  sell- 
ing pins,  needles,  thread,  and  Irish  linens  in 

145 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

the  Yadkin  country,  Findlay  learned  from  the 
Pennsylvania  settlers  at  Salisbury  or  at  the 
Forks  of  the  Yadkin  of  Boone's  removal  to  the 
waters  of  the  upper  Yadkin.  At  Boone's 
rustic  home,  in  the  winter  of  1768-9,  Findlay 
visited  his  old  comrade-in-arms  of  Braddock's 
campaign.  On  learning  of  Boone's  failure 
during  the  preceding  year  to  reach  the  Ken- 
tucky levels  by  way  of  the  inhospitable  Sandy 
region,  Findlay  again  described  to  him  the 
route  through  the  Ouasioto  Gap  traversed 
sixteen  years  before  by  Pennsylvania  trad- 
ers in  their  traffic  with  the  Catawbas.  Boone, 
as  we  have  seen,  knew  that  Christopher  Gist, 
who  had  formerly  lived  near  him  on  the 
upper  Yadkin,  had  found  some  passage 
through  the  lofty  mountain  defiles;  but  he 
had  never  been  able  to  discover  the  passage. 
Findlay's  renewed  descriptions  of  the  immense 
herds  of  buffaloes  he  had  seen  in  Kentucky, 
the  great  salt-licks  where  they  congregated,  the 
abundance  of  bears,  deer,  and  elk  with  which 
the  country  teemed,  the  innumerable  flocks  of 
wild  turkeys,   geese,   and   ducks,   aroused  in 

146 


DANIEL  BOONE  IN  KENTUCKY 

Boone  the  hunter's  passion  for  the  chase ;  while 
the  beauty  of  the  lands,  as  mirrored  in  the 
vivid  fancy  of  the  Irishman,  inspired  him  with 
a  new  longing  to  explore  the  famous  country 
which  had,  as  John  Filson  records,  "greatly 
engaged  Mr.  Findlay's  attention." 

In  the  comprehensive  designs  of  Henderson, 
now  a  judge,  for  securing  a -graphic  report  of 
the  trans-Alleghany  region  in  behalf  of  his 
land  company,  Boone  divined  the  means  of 
securing  the  financial  backing  for  an  expedition 
of  considerable  size  and  ample  equipment.*® 
In  numerous  suits  for  debt,  aggregating  hun- 
dreds of  dollars^  which  had  been  instituted 
against  Boone  by  some  of  the  leading  citizens 
of  Rowan,  Williams  and  Henderson  had  acted 
as  Boone's  attorneys.  In  order  to  collect  their 
legal  fees,  they  likewise  brought  suit  against 
Boone;  but  not  wishing  to  press  the  action 
against  the  kindly  scout  who  had  hitherto  acted 
as  their  agent  in  western  exploration,  they  con- 
tinued the  litigation  from  court  to  court,  in 
lieu  of  certain  "conditions  performed"  on  be- 
half of  Boone,  during  his  unbroken  absence, 

147 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

by  his  attorney  in  this  suit,  Alexander  Martin."^ 
Summoned  to  appear  in  1769  at  the  March 
term  of  court  at  Sahsbury,  Boone  seized  upon 
the  occasion  to  lay  before  Judge  Henderson 
the  designs  for  a  renewed  and  extended  ex- 
ploration of  Kentucky  suggested  by  the  golden 
opportunity  of  securing  the  services  of  Find- 
la)'^  as  guide.  Shortly  after  March  6th,  when 
Judge  Henderson  reached  Salisbury,  the  con- 
ference, doubtless  attended  by  John  Stewart, 
Boone's  brother-in-law,  John  Findlay,  and 
Boone,  who  were  all  present  at  this  term  of 
court,  must  have  been  held,  for  the  purpose  of 
devising  ways  and  means  for  the  expedition. 
Peck,  the  only  reliable  contemporary  bio- 
grapher of  the  pioneer,  who  derived  many  facts 
from  Boone  himself  and  his  intimate  acquaint- 
ances, draws  the  conclusion  (1847)  :  "Daniel 
Boone  was  engaged  as  the  master  spirit  of  this 
exploration,  because  in  his  judgment  and  fidel- 
ity entire  confidence  could  be  reposed.  .  .  . 
He  was  known  to  Henderson  and  encouraged 
by  him  to  make  the  exploration,  and  to  examine 
particularly  the  whole  country  south  of  the 

148 


DANIEL  BOONE  IN  KENTUCKY 

Kentucky — or  as  then  called  the  Louisa 
River."  ^^  As  confidential  agent  of  the  land 
company,  Boone  carried  with  him  letters  and 
instructions  for  his  guidance  upon  this  ex- 
tended tour  of  exploration.®^ 

On  May  1, 1769,  with  Findlay  as  guide,  and 
accompanied  by  four  of  his  neighbors,  John 
Stewart,  a  skilled  woodsman,  Joseph  Holden, 
James  Mooney,  and  William  Cooley,  Boone 
left  his  "peaceable  habitation"  on  the  upper 
Yadkin  and  began  his  historic  journey  "in 
quest  of  the  country  of  Kentucky."  Already 
heavily  burdened  with  debts,  Boone  must  have 
incurred  considerable  further  financial  obliga- 
tions to  Judge  Henderson  ind  Colonel  Wil- 
liams, acting  for  the  land  company,  in  order 
to  obtain  the  large  amount  of  supplies  requisite 
for  so  prolonged  an  expedition.  Each  of  the 
adventurers  rode  a  good  horse  of  strength  and 
endurance;  and  behind  him  were  securely 
strapped  the  blanket,  ammunition,  salt,  and 
cooking-utensils  so  indispensable  for  a  long  so- 
journ in  the  wilderness.  In  Powell's  Valley 
they    doubtless    encountered    the    party    led 

14)9 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

thither    by     Joseph     Martin     (see     Chapter 
VII),    and    there    fell    into    the    "Hunter's 
Trail"  commented  on  in  a  letter  written  by 
Martin  only  a  fortnight  before  the  passing  of 
Boone's  cavalcade.     Crossing  the  mountain  at 
the  Ouasioto  Gap,  they  made  their  first  "sta- 
tion camp"   in  Kentucky  on  the  creek,  still 
named  after  that  circumstance,  on  the  Red 
Lick  Fork.     After  a  preliminary  journey  for 
the  purpose    of    locating   the    spot,    Findlay 
led  the  party  to  his  old  trading-camp  at  Es- 
kip-pa-ki-thi-ki,  where  then    (June  7,   1769) 
remained  but  charred  embers  of  the  Indian 
huts,   with   some   of  the   stockading  and  the 
gate-posts    still    standing.     In    Boone's    own 
words,  he  and  Findlay  at  once  "proceeded  to 
take  a  more  thorough  survey  of  the  country" ; 
and  during  the  autumn  and  early  winter,  en- 
countering on  every   hand  apparently   inex- 
haustible stocks  of  wild  game  and  noting  the 
ever-changing  beauties  of  the  country,  the  va- 
rious members  of  the  party  made  many  hunt- 
ing and  exploring  journeys  from  their  "station 
camp"  as  base.     On  December  22,  1769,  while 

150 


DANIEL  BOONE  IN  KENTUCKY 

engaged  in  a  hunt,  Boone  and  Stewart  were 
surprised  and  captured  by  a  large  party  of 
Shawanoes,  led  by  Captain  Will,  who  were 
returning  from  the  autumn  hunt  on  Green 
River  to  their  villages  north  of  the  Ohio. 
Boone  and  Stewart  were  forced  to  pilot  the 
Indians  to  their  main  camp,  where  the  savages, 
after  robbing  them  of  all  their  peltries  and 
supplies  and  leaving  them  inferior  guns  and 
little  ammunition,  set  off  to  the  northward. 
They  left,  on  parting,  this  menacing  admoni- 
tion to  the  white  intruders:  "Now,  brothers, 
go  home  and  stay  there.  Don't  come  here  any 
more,  for  this  is  the  Indians'  hunting-ground, 
and  all  the  animals,  skins,  and  furs  are  ours. 
If  you  are  so  foolish  as  to  venture  here  again, 
you  may  be  sure  the  wasps  and  yellow  jackets 
will  sting  you  severely." 

Chagrined  particularly  by  the  loss  of  the 
horses,  Boone  and  Stewart  for  two  days  pur- 
sued the  Indians  in  hot  haste.  Finally  ap- 
proaching the  Indians'  camp  by  stealth  in  the 
dead  of  night,  they  secured  two  of  the  horses, 
upon  which  they  fled  at  top  speed.     In  turn 

151 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

thej^  were  immediately  pursued  by  a  detach- 
ment of  the  Indians,  mounted  upon  their  fleet- 
est horses;  and  suffered  the  humihation  of  re- 
capture two  days  later.  Indulging  in  wild 
hilarity  over  the  capture  of  the  crestfallen 
whites,  the  Indians  took  a  bell  from  one  of 
the  horses  and,  fastening  it  about  Boone's 
neck,  compelled  him  under  the  threat  of  bran- 
dished tomahawks  to  caper  about  and  jingle  the 
bell,  jeering  at  him  the  while  with  the  derisive 
query,  uttered  in  broken  English:  "Steal 
horse,  eh?"  With  as  good  grace  as  they  could 
summon — wry  smiles  at  best — Boone  and 
Stewart  patiently  endured  these  humiliations, 
following  the  Indians  as  captives.  Some  days 
later  (about  January  4,  1770),  while  the  vigi- 
lance of  the  Indians  was  momentarily  relaxed, 
the  captives  suddenly  plunged  into  a  dense 
cane-brake  and  in  the  subsequent  confusion 
succeeded  in  effecting  their  escape.  Finding 
their  camp  deserted  upon  their  return,  Boone 
and  Stewart  hastened  on  and  finally  overtook 
their  companions.  Here  Boone  was  both  sur- 
prised and  delighted  to  encounter  his  brother 

152 


DANIEL  BOONE  IN  KENTUCKY 

Squire,  loaded  down  with  supplies.  Having 
heard  nothing  from  Boone,  the  partners  of  the 
land  company  had  surmised  that  he  and  his 
party  must  have  run  short  of  ammunition, 
flour,  salt,  and  other  things  sorely  needed  in  the 
wilderness ;  and  because  of  their  desire  that  the 
party  should  remain,  in  order  to  make  an  ex- 
haustive exploration  of  the  country.  Squire 
Boone  had  been  sent  to  him  with  supplies/*^*' 
Findlay,  Holden,  Mooney,  and  Cooley  re- 
turned to  the  settlements;  but  Stewart,  Squire 
Boone,  and  Alexander  Neely,  who  had  accom- 
panied Squire,  threw  in  their  lot  with  the  in- 
trepid Daniel,  and  fared  forth  once  more  to  the 
stirring  and  bracing  adventures  of  the  Ken- 
tucky wilderness.  In  Daniel  Boone's  own 
words,  he  expected  "from  the  furs  and  peltries 
they  had  an  opportunity  of  taking  ...  to  re- 
cruit his  shattered  circumstances ;  discharge  the 
debts  he  had  contracted  by  the  adventure;  and 
shortly  return  under  better  auspices,  to  settle 
the  newly  discovered  country."  ^°^ 

Boone  and  his  party  now  stationed  them- 
selves near  the  mouth  of  the  Red  River,  and 

153 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

soon  provided  themselves,  against  the  hard- 
ships of  the  long  winter,  with  jerk,  bear's  oil, 
buffalo  tallow,  dried  buffalo  tongues,  fresh 
meat,  and  marrow-bones  as  food,  and  buffalo 
robes  and  bearskins  as  shelter  from  the  in- 
clement weather.  Neely  had  brought  with 
him,  to  while  away  dull  hours,  a  copy  of  "Gulli- 
ver's Travels";  and  in  describing  Neely's  suc- 
cessful hunt  for  buffalo  one  day,  Boone  in 
after  years  amusingly  deposed:  "In  the  year 
1770  I  encamped  on  Red  River  with  five  other 
men,  and  we  had  with  us  for  our  amusement 
the  History  of  Samuel  Gulliver's  Travels, 
wherein  he  gave  an  account  of  his  young  mas- 
ter, Glumdelick,  careing  him  on  market  day 
for  a  show  to  a  town  called  Lulbegrud.  A 
young  man  of  our  company  called  Alexander 
Neely  came  to  camp  and  told  us  he  had  been 
that  day  to  Lulbegrud,  and  had  killed  two 
Brobdignags  in  their  capital."  ^^^  Far  from 
unlettered  were  pioneers  who  indulged  together 
in  such  literary  chat  and  gave  to  the  near-by 
creek  the  name  (after  Dean  Swift's  Lorbrul- 
grud)   of  Lulbegrud  which  name,  first  seen 

154 


DANIEL  BOONE  IN  KENTUCKY 

on  Filson's  map  of  Kentucky  (1784),  it  bears 
to  this  day.  From  one  of  his  long,  sohtary 
hunts  Stewart  never  returned;  and  it  was  not 
until  five  years  later,  while  cutting  out  the 
Transylvania  Trail,  that  Boone  and  his  com- 
panions discovered,  near  the  old  crossing  at 
Rockcastle,  Stewart's  remains  in  a  standing 
hollow  sycamore.  The  wilderness  never  gave 
up  its  tragic  secret. 

The  close  of  the  winter  and  most  of  the 
spring  were  passed  by  the  Boones,  after 
Neely's  return  to  the  settlements,  in  explora- 
tion, hunting,  and  trapping  beaver  and  otter, 
in  which  sport  Daniel  particularly  excelled. 
Owing  to  the  drain  upon  their  ammunition, 
Squire  was  at  length  compelled  to  return  to  the 
settlements  for  supplies;  and  Daniel,  who  re- 
mained alone  in  the  wilderness  to  complete  his 
explorations  for  the  land  company,  must  often 
have  shared  the  feelings  of  Balboa  as,  from 
lofty  knob  or  towering  ridge,  he  gazed  over  the 
waste  of  forest  which  spread  from  the  dim  out- 
hnes  of  the  Alleghanies  to  the  distant  waters 
of  the   Mississippi.     He   now   proceeded   to 

155 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

make  those  remarkable  solitary  explorations  of 
Kentucky  which  have  given  him  immortality 
— through  the  valley  of  the  Kentucky  and  the 
Licking,  and  along  the  "Belle  Riviere"  (Ohio) 
as  low  as  the  falls.  He  visited  the  Big  Bone 
Lick  and  examined  the  wonderful  fossil  re- 
mains of  the  mammoth  found  there.  Along 
the  great  buffalo  roads,  worn  several  feet  be- 
low the  surface  of  the  ground,  which  led  to  the 
Blue  Licks,  he  saw  with  amazement  and  de- 
light thousands  of  huge  shaggy  buffalo  gam- 
boling, bellowing,  and  making  the  earth  rum- 
ble beneath  the  trampling  of  their  hooves. 
One  day,  while  upon  a  cliff  near  the  junction 
of  the  Kentucky  and  Dick's  Rivers,  he  sud- 
denly found  himself  hemmed  in  by  a  party  of 
Indians.  Seizing  his  only  chance  of  escape, 
he  leaped  into  the  top  of  a  maple  tree  growing" 
beneath  the  cliffs  and,  sliding  to  safety  full 
sixty  feet  below,  made  his  escape,  pursued  by 
the  sound  of  a  chorus  of  guttural  "Ughs"  from 
the  dumbfounded  savages. 

Finally  making  his  way  back  to  the  old 
camp,  Daniel  was  rejoined  there  by  Squire 

156 


DANIEL  BOONE  IN  KENTUCKY 

on  July  27,  1770.  During  the  succeeding 
months,  much  of  their  time  was  spent  in  hunt- 
ing and  prospecting  in  Jessamine  County, 
where  two  caves  are  still  known  as  Boone's 
caves.  Eventually,  when  ammunition  and 
supplies  had  once  more  run  low,  Squire  was 
compelled  a  second  time  to  return  to  the  settle- 
ments. Perturbed  after  a  time  by  Squire's 
failure  to  rejoin  him  at  the  appointed  time, 
Daniel  started  toward  the  settlements,  in  search 
of  him;  and  by  a  stroke  of  good  fortune  en- 
countered him  along  the  trail.  Overjoyed  at 
this  meeting  (December,  1770)  the  indomita- 
ble Boones  once  more  plunged  into  the  wil- 
derness, determined  to  conclude  their  explora- 
tions by  examining  the  regions  watered  by  the 
Green  and  Cumberland  rivers  and  their  tribu- 
taries. In  after  years.  Gasper  Mansker,  the 
old  German  scout,  was  accustomed  to  describe 
with  comic  effect  the  consternation  created 
among  the  Long  Hunters,  while  hunting  one 
day  on  Green  River,  by  a  singular  noise  which 
they  could  not  explain.  Steathily  slipping 
from  tree  to  tree,  Mansker  finally  beheld  with 

157 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

mingled  surprise  and  amusement  a  hunter, 
bare-headed,  stretched  flat  upon  his  back  on 
a  deerskin  spread  on  the  ground,  singing  mer- 
rily at  the  top  of  his  voice!  It  was  Daniel 
Boone,  joyously  whiling  away  the  solitary 
hours  in  singing  one  of  his  favorite  songs  of 
the  border.  In  March,  1771,  after  spending 
some  time  in  company  with  the  Long  Hunters, 
the  Boones,  their  horses  laden  with  furs,  set 
their  faces  homeward.  On  their  return  jour- 
ney, near  Cumberland  Gap,  they  had  the 
misfortune  to  be  surrounded  by  a  party  of 
Indians  who  robbed  them  of  their  guns  and  all 
their  peltries.  With  this  humiliating  conclu- 
sion to  his  memorable  tour  of  exploration, 
Daniel  Boone,  as  he  himself  says,  "once  more 
reached  home  after  experiencing  hardships 
which  would  defy  credulity  in  the  recital."  ^°^ 

Despite  the  hardships  and  the  losses,  Boone 
had  achieved  the  ambition  of  years :  he  had  seen 
Kentucky,  which  he  "esteemed  a  second  para- 
dise." The  reports  of  his  extended  explora- 
tions, which  he  made  to  Judge  Henderson, 
were  soon  communicated  to  the  other  partners 

158 


DANIEL  BOONE  IN  KENTUCKY 

of  the  land  company;  and  their  letters  of  this 
period,  to  one  another,  bristle  with  glowing  and 
minute  descriptions  of  the  country,  as  detailed 
by  their  agent.  Boone  was  immediately  en- 
gaged to  act  in  the  company's  behalf  to  sound 
the  Cherokees  confidentially  with  respect  to 
their  willingness  to  lease  or  sell  the  beautiful 
hunting-grounds  of  the  trans-Alleghany/*'* 
The  high  hopes  of  Henderson  and  his  asso- 
ciates at  last  gave  promise  of  brilliant  real- 
ization. Daniel  Boone's  glowing  descriptions 
of  Kentucky  excited  in  their  minds,  says  a 
gifted  early  chronicler,  the  "spirit  of  an  enter- 
prise which  in  point  of  magnitude  and  peril, 
as  well  as  constancy  and  heroism  displayed  in 
its  execution,  has  never  been  paralleled  in  the 
history  of  America." 


159 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  REGULATORS 

It  is  not  a  persons  labour,  nor  yet  his  effects  that  will  do, 
but  if  he  has  but  one  horse  to  plow  with,  one  bed  to  lie  on, 
or  one  cow  to  give  a  little  milk  for  his  children,  they  must  all 
go  to  raise  money  which  is  not  to  be  had.  And  lastly  if  his 
personal  estate  (sold  at  one  tenth  of  its  value)  will  not  do, 
then  his  lands  (which  perhaps  has  cost  him  many  years  of 
toil  and  labour)  must  go  the  same  way  to  satisfy  these  cursed 
hungry  caterpillars,  that  are  eating  and  wiU  eat  out  the 
bowels  of  our  Commonwealth,  if  they  be  not  pulled  down 
from  their  nests  in  a  very  short  time. 

— George  Sims:  A  Serious  Address  to  the  In- 
habitants of  Granville  County,  containing  an 
Account  of  our  deplorable  Situation  we  suffer 
.  .  .  and  some  necessary  Hints  with  Respect 
to  a  Reformation.    June  6,  1765. 

IT  is  highly  probable  that  even  at  the  time 
of  his  earlier  explorations  in  behalf  of 
Richard  Henderson  and  Company,  Daniel 
Boone  anticipated  speedy  removal  to  the  West. 
Indeed,  in  the  very  year  of  his  first  tour  in 
their  interest,  Daniel  and  his  wife  Rebeckah 
sold  all  their  property  in  North  Carolina,  con- 
sisting of  their  home  and  six  hundred  and  forty 

160 


THE  REGULATORS 

acres  of  land,  and  after  several  removals  estab- 
lished themselves  upon  the  upper  Yadkin. 
This  removal  and  the  later  western  explora- 
tions just  outlined  were  due  not  merely  to  the 
spirit  of  adventure  and  discovery.  Three 
other  causes  also  were  at  work.  In  the  first 
place  there  was  the  scarcity  of  game.  For 
fifteen  years  the  shipments  of  deerskins  from 
Bethabara  to  Charleston  steadily  increased; 
and  the  number  of  skins  bought  by  Gammern, 
the  Moravian  storekeeper,  ran  so  high  that  in 
spite  of  the  large  purchases  made  at  the  store 
by  the  hunters  he  would  sometimes  run  entirely 
out  of  money.  Tireless  in  the  chase,  the  far- 
roaming  Boone  was  among  "the  hunters,  who 
brought  in  their  skins  from  as  far  away  as  the 
Indian  lands";  and  the  beautiful  upland  pas- 
tures and  mountain  forests,  still  teeming  with 
deer  and  bear,  doubtless  lured  him  to  the  upper 
Yadkin,  where  for  a  time  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  his  home  abundance  of  game 
fell  before  his  unerring  rifle.  Certainly  the 
deer  and  other  game,  which  were  being  killed 
in  enormous  numbers  to  satisfy  the  insatiable 

161 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

demand  of  the  traders  at  Salisbury,  the  Forks, 
and  Bethabara,  became  scarcer  and  scarcer; 
and  the  wild  game  that  was  left  gradually  fled 
to  the  westward.  Terrible  indeed  was  the 
havoc  wrought  among  the  elk;  and  it  was  re- 
ported that  the  last  elk  was  killed  in  western 
North  Carolina  as  early  as  1781. 

Another  grave  evil  of  the  time  with  which 
Boone  had  to  cope  in  the  back  country  of 
North  Carolina  was  the  growth  of  undisguised 
outlawry,  similar  to  that  found  on  the  western 
plains  of  a  later  era.  This  ruthless  brigand- 
age arose  as  the  result  of  the  unsettled  state 
of  the  country  and  the  exposed  condition  of 
the  settlements  due  to  the  Indian  alarms. 
When  rude  borderers,  demoralized  by  the  en- 
forced idleness  attendant  upon  fort  hfe  during 
the  dark  days  of  Indian  invasion,  sallied  forth 
upon  forays  against  the  Indians,  they  found 
much  valuable  property — horses,  cattle,  and 
stock — left  by  their  owners  when  hurriedly 
fleeing  to  the  protection  of  the  frontier  stock- 
ades. The  temptations  thus  afforded  were  too 
great  to  resist;  and  the  wilder  spirits  of  the 

16a 


THE  REGULATORS 

backwoods,  with  hazy  notions  of  private  rights, 
seized  the  property  which  they  found,  slaugh- 
tered the  cattle,  sold  the  horses,  and  appro- 
priated to  their  own  use  the  temporarily  aban- 
doned household  goods  and  plantation  tools. 
The  stealing  of  horses,  which  were  needed  for 
the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  useful  for  quickly 
carrying  unknown  thieves  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  owner  and  the  law,  became  a  common  prac- 
tice; and  was  carried  on  by  bands  of  outlaws 
living  remote  from  one  another  and  acting  in 
collusive  concert. 

Toward  the  end  of  July,  1755,  when  the 
Indian  outrages  upon  the  New  River  settle- 
ments in  Virginia  had  frightened  away  all  the 
families  at  the  Town  Fork  in  the  Yadkin  coun- 
try, William  Owen,  a  man  of  Welsh  stock,  who 
had  settled  in  the  spring  of  1752  in  the  upper 
Yadkin  near  the  Mulberry  Fields,  was  sus- 
pected of  having  robbed  the  storekeeper  on  the 
Meho.  Not  long  afterward  a  band  of  outlaws 
who  plundered  the  exposed  cabins  in  their 
owners'  absence,  erected  a  rude  fort  in  the 
mountain  region  in  the  rear  of  the  Yadkin 

163 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

settlements,  where  they  stored  their  ill-gotten 
plunder  and  made  themselves  secure  from  at- 
tack. Other  members  of  the  band  dwelt  in 
the  settlements,  where  they  concealed  their 
robber  friends  by  day  and  aided  them  by  night 
in  their  nefarious  projects  of  theft  and  rapine. 
The  entire  community  was  finally  aroused 
by  the  bold  depredations  of  the  outlaws;  and 
the  most  worthy  settlers  of  the  Yadkin  coun- 
try organized  under  the  name  of  Regulators 
to  break  up  the  outlaw  band.  When  it  was 
discovered  that  Owen,  who  was  well  known 
at  Bethabara,  had  allied  himself  with  the  high- 
waymen, one  of  the  justices  summoned  one 
hundred  men;  and  seventy,  who  answered  the 
call,  set  forth  on  December  26,  1755,  to  seek 
out  the  outlaws  and  to  destroy  their  fortress. 
Emboldened  by  their  success,  the  latter  upon 
one  occasion  had  carried  off  a  young  girl  of  the 
settlements.  Daniel  Boone  placed  himself  at 
the  head  of  one  of  the  parties,  which  included 
the  young  girl's  father,  to  go  to  her  rescue; 
and  they  fortunately  succeeded  in  effecting 
the  release  of  the  frightened  maiden.     One  of 

164 


THE  REGULATORS 

the  robbers  was  apprehended  and  brought  to 
Sahsbury,  where  he  was  thrown  into  prison  for 
his  crimes.  Meanwhile  a  large  amount  of 
plunder  had  been  discovered  at  the  house  of 
one  Cornelius  Howard;  and  the  evidences  of 
his  guilt  so  multiplied  against  him  that  he  fi- 
nally confessed  his  connection  with  the  outlaw 
band  and  agreed  to  point  out  their  fort  in  the 
mountains 

Daniel  Boone  and  George  Boone  joined  the 
party  of  seventy  men,  sent  out  by  the  colonial 
authorities,  under  the  guidance  of  Howard,  to 
attack  the  stronghold  of  the  bandits.  Boone 
afterward  related  that  the  robbers'  fort  was 
situated  in  the  most  fitly  chosen  place  for  such 
a  purpose  that  he  could  imagine — ^beneath  an 
overhanging  cHif  of  rock,  with  a  large  natural 
chimney,  and  a  considerable  area  in  front  well 
stockaded.  The  frontiersmen  surrounded  the 
fort,  captured  five  women  and  eleven  children, 
and  then  burned  the  fort  to  the  ground.  Owen 
and  his  wife,  Cumberland,  and  several  others 
were  ultimately  made  prisoners;  but  Harman 
and  the  remainder  of  the  band  escaped  by 

165 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

flight.  Owen  and  his  fellow  captives  were 
then  borne  to  Salisbury,  incarcerated  in  the 
prison  there,  and  finally  (May,  1756)  con- 
demned to  the  gallows.  Owen  sent  word  to 
the  Moravians,  petitioning  them  to  adopt  his 
two  boys  and  to  apprentice  one  to  a  tailor,  the 
other  to  a  carpenter.  But  so  infuriated  was 
Owen's  wife  by  Howard's  treachery  that  she 
branded  him  as  a  second  Judas;  and  this  at 
once  fixed  upon  him  the  sobriquet  "Judas" 
Howard — a  sobriquet  he  did  not  live  long  to 
bear,  for  about  a  year  later  he  was  ambushed 
and  shot  from  his  horse  at  the  crossing  of  a 
stream.  He  thus  paid  the  penalty  of  his  be- 
trayal of  the  outlaw  band.  For  a  number  of 
years,  the  Regulators  continued  to  wage  war 
against  the  remaining  outlaws,  who  from  time 
to  time  committed  murders  as  well  as  thefts. 
As  late  as  January,  1768,  the  Regulators 
caught  a  horse  thief  in  the  Hollows  of  Surry 
County  and  brought  him  to  Bethabara,  whence 
Richter  and  Spach  took  him  to  the  jail  at 
Salisbury.     After  this  year,  the  outlaws  were 

166 


THE  REGULATORS 

heard  of  no  more;  and  peace  reigned  in  the 
settlements. 

Colonel  Edmund  Fanning — of  whom  more 
anon — declared  that  the  Regulation  began  in 
Anson  County  which  bordered  upon  South 
Carolina/'^^  Certain  it  is  that  the  upper  coun- 
try of  that  province  was  kept  in  an  uproar 
by  civil  disturbances  during  this  early  period. 
Owing  to  the  absence  of  courts  in  this  section, 
so  remote  from  Charleston,  the  inhabitants 
found  it  necessary,  for  the  protection  of  prop- 
erty and  the  punishment  of  outlaws,  to  form 
an  association  called,  like  the  North  Carolina 
society,  the  Regulation.  Against  this  associa- 
tion the  horse  thieves  and  other  criminals  made 
common  cause,  and  received  tacit  support  from 
certain  more  reputable  persons  who  condemned 
"the  irregularity  of  the  Regulators."  The 
Regulation  which  had  been  thus  organized  in 
upper  South  Carolina  as  early  as  1764  led  to 
tumultuous  risings  of  the  settlers;  and  finally 
in  the  effort  to  suppress  these  disorders,  the 
governor.  Lord  Charles  Montagu,  appointed 

167 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

one  Scovil,  an  utterly  unworthy  representa- 
tive, to  carry  out  his  commands.  After  vari- 
ous disorders,  which  became  ever  more  unen- 
durable to  the  law-abiding,  matters  came  to  a 
crisis  (1769)  as  the  result  of  the  high-handed 
proceedings  of  Scovil,  who  promiscuously 
seized  and  flung  into  prison  all  the  Regulators 
he  could  lay  hands  on.  In  the  month  of 
March  the  back  country  rose  in  revolt  against 
Scovil  and  a  strong  body  of  the  settlers  was  on 
the  point  of  attacking  the  force  under  his  com- 
mand when  an  eleventh-hour  letter  arrived 
from  Montagu,  dismissing  Scovil  from  office. 
Thus  was  happily  averted,  by  the  narrowest 
of  margins,  a  threatened  precursor  of  the  fight 
at  Alamance  in  1771  (see  Chapter  XII). 
As  the  result  of  the  petition  of  the  Calhouns 
and  others,  courts  were  established  in  1760, 
though  not  opened  until  four  years  later. 
Many  horse  thieves  were  apprehended,  tried, 
and  punished.  Justice  once  more  held  full 
sway. 

Another  important  cause  for  Boone's  re- 
moval from  the  neighborhood  of  Salisbury  into 

168 


THE  REGULATORS 

the  mountain  fastnesses  was  the  oppressive  ad- 
ministration of  the  law  by  corrupt  sheriffs, 
clerks,  and  tax-gatherers,  and  the  dissatisfac- 
tion of  the  frontier  squatters  with  the  owners 
of  the  soil.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1764* 
reports  reached  the  town  of  Wilmington,  after 
the  adjournment  of  the  assembly  in  Novem- 
ber, of  serious  disturbances  in  Orange  County, 
due,  it  was  alleged,  to  the  exorbitant  exactions 
of  the  clerks,  registers,  and  some  of  the  attor- 
neys/^® As  a  result  of  this  disturbing  news, 
Governor  Dobbs  issued  a  proclamation  for- 
bidding any  officer  to  take  illegal  fees.  Trou- 
bles had  been  brewing  in  the  adjacent  county 
of  Granville  ever  since  the  outbreak  of  the 
citizens  against  Francis  Corbin,  Lord  Gran- 
ville's agent  (January  24,  1759),  and  the  is- 
suance of  the  petition  of  Reuben  Searcy  and 
others  (March  23d)  protesting  against  the 
alleged  excessive  fees  taken  and  injustices  prac- 
tised by  Robert  (Robin)  Jones,  the  famous 
lawyer.  These  disturbances  were  cumulative 
in  their  effect;  and  the  people  at  last  (1765) 
found  in   George    Sims,   of   Granville,   a  fit 

169 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

spokesman  of  their  cause  and  a  doughty  cham- 
pion of  popular  rights.  In  his  "Serious  Ad- 
dress to  the  Inhabitants  of  Granville  County, 
containing  an  Account  of  our  deplorable  Sit- 
uation we  suffer  .  .  .  and  some  necessary 
Hints  with  Respect  to  a  Reformation,"  re- 
cently brought  to  light,  he  presents  a  crushing 
indictment  of  the  clerk  of  the  county  court, 
Samuel  Benton,  the  grandfather  of  Thomas 
Hart  Benton.  After  describing  in  detail  the 
system  of  semi-peonage  created  by  the  merci- 
less exactions  of  lawyers  and  petty  court  offi- 
cials, and  the  insatiable  gi-eed  of  "these  cursed 
hungry  caterpillars,"  Sims  with  rude  eloquence 
calls  upon  the  people  to  pull  them  down  from 
their  nests  for  the  salvation  of  the  Common- 
wealth.i"" 

Other  abuses  were  also  recorded.  So  ex- 
orbitant was  the  charge  for  a  marriage-license, 
for  instance,  that  an  early  chronicler  records: 
"The  consequence  was  that  some  of  the  inhabi- 
tants on  the  head-waters  of  the  Yadlvin  took 
a  short  cut.  They  took  each  other  for  better 
or  for  worse;  and  considered  themselves  as 

170 


THE  REGULATORS 

married  without  further  ceremony."  The  ex- 
traordinary scarcity  of  currency  throughout 
the  colony,  especially  in  the  back  country,  was 
another  great  hardship  and  a  perpetual  source 
of  vexation.  All  these  conditions  gradually 
became  intolerable  to  the  uncultured  but  free- 
spirited  men  of  the  back  country.  Events 
were  slowly  converging  toward  a  crisis  in  gov- 
ernment and  society.  Independent  in  spirit, 
turbulent  in  action,  the  backwoodsmen  revolted 
not  only  against  excessive  taxes,  dishonest 
sheriffs,  and  extortionate  fees,  but  also  against 
the  rapacious  practices  of  the  agents  of  Lord 
Granville.  These  agents  industriously  picked 
flaws  in  the  titles  to  the  lands  in  Granville's 
proprietary  upon  which  the  poorer  settlers  were 
seated ;  and  compelled  them  to  pay  for  the  land 
if  they  had  not  already  done  so,  or  else  to  pay 
the  fees  twice  over  and  take  out  a  new  patent 
as  the  only  remedy  of  the  alleged  defect  in 
their  titles.  In  Mecklenburg  County  the 
spirit  of  backwoods  revolt  flamed  out  in  pro- 
test against  the  proprietary  agents.  Acting 
under  instructions  to  survey  and  close  bargains 

171 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

for  the  lands  or  else  to  eject  those  who  held 
them,  Henry  Eustace  McCulloh,  in  February, 
1765,  went  into  the  county  to  call  a  reckoning. 
The  settlers,  many  of  whom  had  located  with- 
out deeds,  indignantly  retorted  by  offering  to 
buy  only  at  their  own  prices,  and  forbade  the 
survej^ors  to  lay  out  the  holdings  when  this 
smaller  price  was  declined.  They  not  only 
terrorized  into  acquiescence  those  among  them 
who  were  willing  to  pay  the  amount  charged 
for  the  lands,  but  also  openly  declared  that 
they  would  resist  by  force  any  sheriff  in  eject- 
ment proceedings.  On  May  7th  an  outbreak 
occurred ;  and  a  mob,  led  by  Thomas  Polk,  set 
upon  John  Frohock,  Abraham  Alexander,  and 
others,  as  they  were  about  to  survey  a  parcel 
of  land,  and  gave  them  a  severe  thrashing,  even 
threatening  the  young  McCulloh  with  death. ^''^ 
The  choleric  backwoodsmen,  instinctively  in 
agreement  with  Francis  Bacon,  considered  re- 
venge as  a  sort  of  wild  justice.  Especial  ob- 
jects of  their  animosity  were  the  brothers  Fro- 
hock, John  and  Thomas,  the  latter  clerk  of 
the  court  at  Sahsbury,  and  Edmund  Fanning, 

17« 


THE  REGULATORS 

a  cultured  gentleman-adventurer,  associate 
justice  of  the  superior  court.  So  rapacious 
and  extortionate  were  these  vultures  of  the 
courts  who  preyed  upon  the  vitals  of  the 
common  people,  that  they  were  savagely  lam- 
pooned by  Rednap  Howell,  the  backwoods 
poet-laureate  of  the  Regulation.  The  temper 
of  the  back  country  is  well  caught  in  Howell's 
lines  anent  this  early  American  "grafter,"  the 
favorite  of  the  royal  governor : 

When  Fanning  first  to  Orange  came, 

He  looked  both  pale  and  wan ; 
An  old  patched  coat  was  on  his  back, 

An  old  mare  he  rode  on. 

Both  man  and  mare  wan't  worth  five  pounds, 

As  I  've  been  often  told ; 
But  by  his  civil  robberies, 

He  's  laced  his  coat  with  gold.^"^ 

The  germs  of  the  great  westward  migration 
in  the  coming  decade  were  thus  working  among 
the  people  of  the  back  country.  If  the  tense 
nervous  energy  of  the  American  people  is  the 
transmitted  characteristic  of  the  border  set- 
tlers, who  often  slept  with  loaded  rifle  in  hand 

173 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

in  grim  expectation  of  being  awakened  by  the 
hideous  yells,  the  deadly  tomahawk,  and  the 
lurid  firebrand  of  the  savage,  the  very  buo}'-- 
ancy  of  the  national  character  is  in  equal  meas- 
ure "traceable  to  the  free  democracy  founded 
on  a  freehold  inheritance  of  land."  The  de- 
sire for  free  land  was  the  fundamental  factor 
in  the  development  of  the  American  democ- 
racy. No  colony  exhibited  this  tendency  more 
signally  than  did  North  Carolina  in  the  turbu- 
lent days  of  the  Regulation.  The  North 
Carolina  frontiersmen  resented  the  obligation 
to  pay  quit-rents  and  firmly  believed  that  the 
first  occupant  of  the  soil  had  an  indefeasible 
right  to  the  land  which  he  had  won  with  his 
rifle  and  rendered  productive  by  the  imple- 
ments of  toil.  Preferring  the  dangers  of  the 
free  wilderness  to  the  paying  of  tribute  to  ab- 
sentee landlords  and  ofiicials  of  an  intolerant 
colonial  government,  the  frontiersman  found 
title  in  his  trusty  rifle  rather  than  in  a  piece  of 
parchment,  and  was  prone  to  pay  his  obliga- 
tions to  the  owner  of  the  soil  in  lead  rather 
than  in  gold, 

174 


CHAPTER  XII 

WATAUGA — HAVEN    OF  LIBERTY 

The  Regulators  despaired  of  seeing  better  times  and  there- 
fore quitted  the  Province.  It  is  said  1,500  departed  since 
the  Battle  of  Alamance  and  to  my  knowledge  a  great  many 
more  are  only  waiting  to  dispose  of  their  plantations  in  order 
to  follow  them. 

— Revebekd  Morgan  Edwards,  1772. 

THE  five  years  (1766-1771)  which  saw  the 
rise,  development,  and  ultimate  defeat  of 
the  popular  movement  known  as  the  Regula- 
tion, constitute  a  period  not  only  of  extraordi- 
nary significance  in  North  Carolina  but  also 
of  fruitful  consequences  in  the  larger  move- 
ments of  westward  expansion.  With  the  reso- 
lute intention  of  having  their  rulers  "give  ac- 
count of  their  stewardship,"  to  employ  their 
own  words,  the  Sandy  Creek  Association  of 
Baptists  (organized  in  1758),  in  a  series  of 
papers  known  as  Regulators'  Advertisements 
(1766-8)  proceeded  to  mature,  through  popu- 

175 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

lar  gatherings,  a  rough  form  of  initiative  and 
referendum.  At  length,  discouraged  in  its  ef- 
forts, and  particularly  in  the  attempt  to  bring 
county  officials  to  book  for  charging  illegal 
fees,  this  association  ceased  actively  to  func- 
tion. It  was  the  precursor  of  a  movement 
of  much  more  drastic  character  and  formidable 
proportions,  chiefly  directed  against  Colonel 
Edmund  Fanning  and  his  associates.  This 
movement  doubtless  took  its  name,  "the  Regu- 
lation," from  the  bands  of  men  already  de- 
scribed who  were  organized  first  in  North 
Carolina  and  later  in  South  Carolina,  to  put 
down  highwaymen  and  to  correct  many  abuses 
in  the  back  country,  such  as  the  tyrannies  of 
Scovil  and  his  henchmen.  Failing  to  secure 
redress  of  their  grievances  through  legal  chan- 
nels, the  Regulators  finally  made  such  a  pow- 
erful demonstration  in  support  of  their  refusal 
to  pay  taxes  that  Governor  William  Tryon 
of  North  Carolina,  in  1768,  called  out  the  pro- 
vincial militia,  and  by  marching  with  great 
show  of  force  through  the  disaffected  regions, 
succeeded  temporarily  in  overawing  the  people 

176 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 

and  thus  inducing  them  to  pay  their  assess- 
ments.^ ^^^ 

The  suits  which  had  been  brought  by  the 
Regulators  against  Edmund  Fanning,  regis- 
ter, and  Francis  Nash,  clerk,  of  Orange 
County,  resulted  in  both  being  "found  guilty 
of  taking  too  high  fees."  ^^^  Fanning  imme- 
diately resigned  his  commission  as  register; 
while  Nash,  who  in  conjunction  with  Fanning 
had  fairly  offered  in  1766  to  refund  to  any 
one  aggi'ieved  any  fee  charged  by  him  which 
the  Superior  Court  might  hold  excessive,  gave 
bond  for  his  appearance  at  the  next  court. 
Similar  suits  for  extortion  against  the  three 
Frohocks  in  Rowan  County  in  1769  met  with 
failure,  however ;  and  this  outcome  aroused  the 
bitter  resentment  of  the  Regulators,  as  re- 
corded by  Herman  Husband  in  his  "Impartial 
Relation."  During  this  whole  period  the  in- 
surrectionary spirit  of  the  people,  who  felt 
themselves  deeply  aggrieved  but  recognized 
their  inability  to  secure  redress,  took  the  form 
of  driving  local  justices  from  the  bench  and 
threatening  court  officials  with  violence. 

177 


An  ImpaitiaJ 

RELATION 

OF     THE 

Firft  Rile  and  Caufe 

O  F     T  H  E 

Recent  DIFFERENCES, 

1     N 

PUBLICK  AFFAIRS, 

In  the  Province  of  ATorth-Ca* 
rolina  \  and  of  the  paft  'Tu^ 
mulis  and  Riots  that  lately 
happened  in  that  Province. 

Containing  mod  of  the  true  and  genuine 
(,'opies  of  Letters,  Meflages  and  Remondrances, 
Ktwcen  the  Parties  contending  r—  -—By  which 
any  impartial  Man  may  eafily  galher^nd  Tee  the 
true  Ground  and  Reafons  of  the  di^alTTsfa^ioa 
that  univcrfally  reigbs  all  ovet  i<>id  Prdvioce  la 
a  more  or  lefs  Degree. 


Printed  for  the  Compiler.  \jyo, 
178 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 

At  the  session  of  the  Superior  Court  at 
Hillsborough,  September  22,  1770,  an  elabo- 
rate petition  prepared  by  the  Regulators,  de- 
manding unprejudiced  juries  and  the  public 
accounting  for  taxes  by  the  sheriffs,  was 
handed  to  the  presiding  justice  by  James 
Hunter,  a  leading  Regulator.  This  justice 
was  our  acquaintance.  Judge  Richard  Hender- 
son, of  Granville  County,  the  sole  high  officer 
in  the  provincial  government  from  the  entire 
western  section  of  the  colony.  In  this  petition 
occur  these  trenchant  words:  "As  we  are 
serious  and  in  good  earnest  and  the  cause  re- 
spects the  whole  body  of  the  people  it  would 
be  loss  of  time  to  enter  into  arguments  on  par- 
ticular points  for  though  there  are  a  few  men 
who  have  the  gift  and  art  of  reasoning,  yet 
every  man  has  a  feeling  and  knows  when  he 
has  justice  done  him  as  well  as  the  most 
learned."  ^^^  On  the  following  Monday  (Sep- 
tember 24th),  upon  convening  of  court,  some 
one  hundred  and  fifty  Regulators,  led  by 
James  Hunter,  Herman  Husband,  Rednap 
Howell,  and  others,  armed  with  clubs,  whips, 

179 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

and  cudgels,  surged  into  the  court-room  and 
through  their  spokesman,  Jeremiah  Fields, 
presented  a  statement  of  their  grievances.  "I 
found  myself,"  says  Judge  Henderson,  "under 
a  necessity  of  attempting  to  soften  and  turn 
away  the  fury  of  these  mad  people,  in  the  best 
manner  in  my  power,  and  as  such  could  well 
be,  pacify  their  rage  and  at  the  same  time  pre- 
serve the  little  remaining  dignity  of  the 
court."  ''' 

During  an  interim,  in  which  the  Regulators 
retired  for  consultation,  they  fell  without  warn- 
ing upon  Fanning  and  gave  him  such  rough 
treatment  that  he  narrowly  escaped  with  his 
life.  The  mob,  now  past  control,  horsewhipped 
a  number  of  leading  lawyers  and  citizens 
gathered  there  at  court,  and  treated  others, 
notably  the  courtly  Mr.  Hooper  of  Boston, 
"with  every  mark  of  contempt  and  insult." 
Judge  Henderson  was  assured  by  Fields  that 
no  harm  should  come  to  him  provided  he  would 
conduct  the  court  in  accordance  with  the  behest 
of  the  Regulators:  namely,  that  no  lawyer, 
save  the  King's  Attorney,  should  be  admitted 

180 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 

to  the  court,  and  that  the  Regulators'  cases 
should  be  tried  with  new  jurors  chosen  by  the 
Regulators.  With  the  entire  httle  village  ter- 
rorized by  this  campaign  of  "frightfulness," 
and  the  court  wholly  unprotected,  Judge  Hen- 
derson reluctantly  acknowledged  to  himself 
that  "the  power  of  the  judiciary  was  ex- 
hausted." Nevertheless,  he  says,  "I  made 
every  effort  in  my  power  consistent  with  my 
office  and  the  duty  the  public  is  entitled  to  claim 
to  preserve  peace  and  good  order."  ^^^  Agree- 
ing under  dm'ess  to  resume  the  session  the  fol- 
lowing day,  the  judge  ordered  an  adjourn- 
ment. But  being  unwilling,  on  mature  reflec- 
tion, to  permit  a  mockery  of  the  court  and  a 
travesty  of  justice  to  be  staged  under  threat 
and  intimidation,  he  returned  that  night  to  his 
home  in  Granville  and  left  the  court  adjourned 
in  course.  Enraged  by  the  judge's  escape, 
the  Regulators  took  possession  of  the  court- 
room the  following  morning,  called  over  the 
cases,  and  in  futile  protest  against  the  condi- 
tions they  were  powerless  to  remedy,  made 
profane  entries  which  may  still  be  seen  on  the 

181 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

record:  "Damned  rogues,"  "Fanning  pays 
cost  but  loses  nothing,"  "Negroes  not  worth  a 
damn,  Cost  exceeds  the  whole,"  "Hogan  pays 
and  be  damned,"  and,  in  a  case  of  slander, 
"Nonsense,  let  them  argue  for  Ferrell  has  gone 
hellward."  ''' 

The  uprising  of  these  bold  and  resolute,  sim- 
ple and  unperfectly  educated  people,  which 
had  begun  as  a  constitutional  struggle  to  se- 
cure justice  and  to  prevent  their  own  exploita- 
tion by  dishonest  lawyers  of  the  county  courts, 
now  gave  place  to  open  anarchy  and  secret 
incendiarism.  ^^^  In  the  dead  of  night,  Novem- 
ber 12th  and  14th,  Judge  Henderson's  barn, 
stables,  and  dwelling  house  were  fired  by  the 
Regulators  and  went  up  in  flames.  Glowing 
with  a  sense  of  wrong,  these  misguided  people, 
led  on  by  fanatical  agitators,  thus  vented  their 
indiscriminate  rage,  not  only  upon  their  op- 
pressors, but  also  upon  men  wholly  innocent 
of  injuring  them — ^men  of  the  stamp  of  Wil- 
liam Hooper,  afterward  signer  of  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence,  Alexander  Martin, 
afterward  governor  and  United  States  Sena- 

182 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 

tor,  and  Richard  Henderson,  popular  repre- 
sentative of  the  back  country  and  a  firm  cham- 
pion of  due  process  of  law.  It  is  perhaps  not 
surprising  in  view  of  these  events  that  Gov- 
ernor Tryon  and  the  ruling  class,  lacking  a 
sympathy  broad  enough  to  ensure  justice  to 
the  oppressed  people,  seemed  to  be  chiefly  im- 
pressed with  the  fact  that  a  widespread  in- 
surrection was  in  progress,  threatening  not 
only  life  and  property,  but  also  civil  govern- 
ment itself.  The  governor  called  out  the  mili- 
tia of  the  province  and  led  an  army  of  well- 
nigh  one  thousand  men  and  officers  against 
the  Regulators,  who  had  assembled  at  Ala- 
mance to  the  number  of  two  thousand.  Tryon 
stood  firm  upon  the  demands  that  the  people 
should  submit  to  government  and  disperse  at 
a  designated  hour.  The  Regulators,  on  their 
side,  hoped  to  secure  the  reforms  they  desired 
by  intimidating  the  governor  with  a  great  dis- 
play of  force.  The  battle  was  a  tragic  fiasco 
for  the  Regulators,  who  fought  bravely,  but 
without  adequate  arms  or  real  leadership. 
With  the  conclusion  of  this  desultory  action,  a 

18S 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

fight  lasting  about  two  hours  (May  16,  1771), 
the  power  of  the  Regulators  was  completely 
broken."' 

Among  these  insurgents  there  was  a  remark- 
able element — an  element  whose  influence 
upon  the  course  of  American  history  has  been 
but  imperfectly  understood — which  now  looms 
into  prominence  as  the  vanguard  of  the  army 
of  westward  expansion.  There  were  some  of 
the  Regulators  who,  though  law-abiding  and 
conservative,  were  deeply  imbued  with  ideas 
of  liberty,  personal  independence,  and  the 
freedom  of  the  soil.  Through  the  influence  of 
Benjamin  Franklin,  with  whom  one  of  the 
leaders  of  the  group,  Herman  Husband,  was 
in  constant  correspondence,  the  patriotic  ideas 
then  rapidly  maturing  into  revolutionary  sen- 
timents furnished  the  inspiration  to  action. 
As  early  as  1766,  the  Sandy  Creek  leaders,  re- 
ferred to  earlier  in  this  chapter,  issued  a  call 
to  each  neighborhood  to  send  delegates  to  a 
gathering  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  the 
question  "whether  the  free  men  of  this  country 
labor  under  any  abuses  of  power  or  not."     The 

184 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 

close  connection  between  the  Sandy  Creek  men 
and  the  Sons  of  Liberty  is  amply  demonstrated 
in  this  paper  wherein  the  Sons  of  Liberty  in 
connection  with  the  "stamp  law"  are  praised 
for  "redeeming  us  from  Tyranny"  and  for  hav- 
ing "withstood  the  lords  in  Parliament  in  be- 
half of  true  liberty."  ^^^  Upon  the  records  of 
the  Dutchman's  Creek  Church,  of  "regular" 
Baptists,  at  the  Forks  of  the  Yadkin,  to  which 
Daniel  Boone's  family  belonged,  may  be  found 
this  memorable  entry,  recognizing  the  "Amer- 
ican Cause"  well-nigh  a  year  before  the  declar- 
ation of  independence  at  Philadelphia:  "At 
the  monthly  meeting  it  was  agreed  upon  con- 
cerning the  American  Cause,  if  any  of  the 
brethren  see  cause  to  join  it  they  have  the  lib- 
erty to  do  it  without  being  called  to  an  account 
by  the  church.  But  whether  they  join  or  do 
not  join  they  should  be  used  with  brotherly 
love."  ''' 

The  fundamental  reasons  underlying  the 
approaching  westward  hegira  are  found  in  the 
remarkable  petition  of  the  Regulators  of  An- 
son County   (October  9,  1769),  who  request 

185 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

that  "Benjamin  Franklin  or  some  other  known 
patriot"  be  appointed  agent  of  the  province 
in  London  to  seek  redress  at  the  som*ce.  They 
exposed  the  basic  evil  in  the  situation  by  point- 
ing out  that,  in  violation  of  the  law  restricting 
the  amount  of  land  that  might  be  granted  to 
each  person  to  six  hundred  and  forty  acres, 
much  of  the  most  fertile  territory  in  the  prov- 
ince had  been  distributed  in  large  tracts  to 
wealthy  landlords.  In  consequence  "great 
numbers  of  poor  people  are  necessitated  to  toil 
in  the  cultivation  of  the  bad  Lands  whereon 
they  hardly  can  subsist."  ^^"  It  was  these  poor 
people,  "thereby  deprived  of  His  Majesties 
liberality  and  Bounty,"  who  soon  turned  their 
gaze  to  the  westward  and  crossed  the  moun- 
tains in  search  of  the  rich,  free  lands  of  the 
trans-AUeghany  region. 

This  feverish  popular  longing  for  freedom, 
stimulated  by  the  economic  pressure  of  thou- 
sands of  pioneers  who  were  annually  entering 
North  Carolina,  set  in  motion  a  wave  of  migra- 
tion across  the  mountains  in  1769.  Long  be- 
fore Alamance,  many  of  the  true  Americans, 

186 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 

distraught  by  apparently  irremediable  injus- 
tices, plunged  fearlessly  into  the  wilderness, 
seeking  beyond  the  mountains  a  new  birth  of 
liberty,  lands  of  their  own  selection  free  of 
cost  or  quit-rents,  and  a  government  of  their 
own  choosing  and  control/"^  The  glad  news 
of  the  rich  valleys  beyond  the  mountains  early 
lured  such  adventurous  pioneers  as  Andrew 
Greer  and  Julius  Csesar  Dugger  to  the  Wa- 
tauga country.  The  glowing  stories,  told  by 
Boone,  and  disseminated  in  the  back  country 
by  Henderson,  Williams,  and  the  Harts, 
seemed  to  give  promise  to  men  of  this  stamp 
that  the  West  afforded  relief  from  oppressions 
suffered  in  IsTorth  Carolina.  During  the 
winter  of  1768-9  there  was  also  a  great  rush 
of  settlers  from  Virginia  into  the  valley  of  the 
Holston.  A  party  from  Augusta  County,  led 
by  men  who  had  been  delighted  with  the  coun- 
try viewed  seven  years  before  when  they  were 
serving  under  Colonel  William  Byrd  against 
the  Cherokees,  found  that  this  region,  a  wil- 
derness on  their  outward  passage  in  1768,  was 
dotted  with  cabins  on  every  spot  where  the 

187 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

grazing  was  good,  upon  their  return  the  fol- 
lowing year.  Writing  to  Hillsborough  on 
October  18,  1770,  concerning  the  "many  hun- 
dred families"  in  the  region  from  Green  River 
to  the  branches  of  the  Holston,  who  refused 
to  comply  with  the  royal  proclamation  of 
1763,  Acting-Governor  Nelson  of  Virginia 
reports  that  "very  little  if  any  Quit  Rents 
have  been  received  for  His  Majesty's  use  from 
that  Quarter  for  some  time  past" — the  people 
claiming  that  "His  Majesty  hath  been  pleased 
to  withdraw  his  protection  from  them  since 
1763."  ^'■ 

In  the  spring  of  1770,  with  the  express  in- 
tention of  discovering  suitable  locations  for 
homes  for  himself  and  a  number  of  others,  who 
wished  to  escape  the  accumulating  evils  of  the 
times,  James  Robertson  of  Orange  County, 
North  Carolina,  made  an  arduous  journey  to 
the  pleasing  valley  of  the  Watauga.  Robert- 
son, who  was  born  in  Brunswick  County,  Vir- 
ginia, June  28,  1742,  of  excellent  Scotch-Irish 
ancestry,  was  a  noteworthy  figure  of  a  certain 
type — quiet,  reflective,   conservative,  wise,  a 

188 


JAMES   ROBERTSON 

From    the    composite    portrait    by    Washington    B.    Cooper. 
Courtesy  Tennessee  Historical  Society 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 

firm  believer  in  the  basic  principles  of  civil 
liberty  and  the  right  of  local  self-government. 
Robertson  spent  some  time  with  a  man  named 
Honeycut  in  the  Watauga  region,  raised  a 
crop  of  corn,  and  chose  for  himself  and  his 
friends  suitable  locations  for  settlement.  Lost 
upon  his  return  in  seeking  the  mountain  defiles 
traversed  by  him  on  the  outward  journey,  Rob- 
ertson probably  escaped  death  from  starva- 
tion only  through  the  chance  passing  of  two 
hunters  who  succored  him  and  set  him  upon 
the  right  path.  On  arriving  in  Orange  he 
found  political  and  social  conditions  there 
much  worse  than  before,  many  of  the  colonists 
declining  to  take  the  obligatory  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  the  British  Crown  after  the  Battle 
of  Alamance,  preferring  to  carve  out  for  them- 
selves new  homes  along  the  western  waters. 
Some  sixteen  families  of  this  stamp,  indignant 
at  the  injustices  and  oppressions  of  British 
rule,  and  stirred  by  Robertson's  description 
of  the  richness  and  beauty  of  the  western  coun- 
try, accompanied  him  to  Watauga  shortly 
after  the  battle. 

189 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

This  vanguard  of  the  army  of  westward  ad- 
vance, independent  Americans  in  spirit  with 
a    negligible    sprinkling    of    Loyalists,    now 
swept  in  a  great  tide  into  the  northeastern  sec- 
tion of  Tennessee.     The  men  of  Sandy  Creek, 
actuated  by  independent  principles  but  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  anarchic  side  of  the  Regu- 
lation,   left    the    colony    almost    to    a    man. 
"After  the  defeat  of  the  Regulators,"  says  the 
historian   of   the    Sandy    Creek    Association, 
"thousands  of  the  oppressed,  seeing  no  hope 
of  redress  for   their  grievances,  moved  into 
and    settled   east   Tennessee.     A   large    pro- 
portion of  these  were  of  the  Baptist  popula- 
tion.    Sandy  Creek  Church  which  some  time 
previous  to  1771,  numbered  606,  was  after- 
ward reduced  to  fourteen  members!"  ^^'     This 
movement     exerted     powerful     influence     in 
stimulating     westward     expansion.     Indeed, 
it   was   from   men   of   Regulating   principles 
— Boone,  Robertson,  and  the   Searcys — who 
vehemently     condemned     the     anarchy     and 
incendiarism     of     1770,    that    Judge    Hen- 
derson    received     powerful     cooperation     in 

190 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 
the    opening    up    of    Kentucky    and    Ten- 

1  24 

nessee. 

The  several  treaties  concerning  the  western 
boundary  of  white  settlement,  concluded  in 
close  succession  by  North  Carolina,  Virginia, 
and  the  Crown  with  the  Southern  and  North- 
ern Indians,  had  an  important  bearing  upon 
the  settlement  of  Watauga.  The  Cherokee 
boundary  line,  as  fixed  by  Governor  Tryon 
(1767)  and  by  John  Stuart  (1768),  ran  from 
Reedy  River  to  Tryon  Mountain,  thence 
straight  to  Chiswell's  Mine,  and  thence  di- 
rect to  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha 
River.  By  the  treaty  at  Fort  Stanwix  (No- 
vember 5,  1768),  in  the  negotiation  of  which 
Virginia  was  represented  by  Dr.  Thomas 
Walker  and  Major  Andrew  Lewis,  the  Six 
Nations  sold  to  the  Crown  their  shadowy 
claim  to  a  vast  tract  of  western  country,  in- 
cluding in  particular  all  the  land  between 
the  Ohio  and  the  Tennessee  Rivers.  The  news 
of  the  cession  resulted  in  a  strong  southwest- 
ward  thrust  of  population,  from  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Abingdon,  in  the  direction  of  the  Hol- 

191 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

ston  Valley/ ^^  Recognizing  that  hundreds  of 
these  settlers  were  beyond  the  hne  negotiated 
by  Stuart,  but  on  lands  not  yet  surveyed,  Gov- 
ernor Botetourt  instructed  the  Virginia  com- 
missioners to  press  for  further  negotiations, 
through  Stuart,  with  the  Cherokees.  Accord- 
ingly, on  October  18,  1770,  a  new  treaty  was 
made  at  Lochaber,  South  Carolina,  by  which 
a  new  line  back  of  Virginia  was  established, 
beginning  at  the  intersection  of  the  North 
Carolina-Cherokee  line  (a  point  some  seventy- 
odd  miles  east  of  Long  Island),  running 
thence  in  a  west  course  to  a  point  six  miles 
east  of  Long  Island,  and  thence  in  a  direct 
course  to  the  confluence  of  the  Great  Kanawha 
and  Ohio  Rivers.  At  the  time  of  the  treaty, 
it  was  agreed  that  the  Holston  River,  from  its 
intersection  with  the  North  Carolina-Virginia 
line,  and  down  the  course  of  the  same,  should 
be  a  temporary  southern  boundary  of  Virginia 
until  the  line  should  be  ascertained  by  actual 
survey/ ^^  A  strong  influx  of  population  into 
the  immense  new  triangle  thus  released  for  set- 

192 


THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

1740  -  1790 

Seals   of  M/les 

\oo 
Sett/ements    and  Projectec/  States 
wa^mt^ ^^  Proc/a/nat/on  /./he  of  t763 
___^^    Tryon's  tins.  /767 

,_,_,_,  ^//^ff  of    Treaty. of  Hard  labor.   Ocf./4,/763 
«<<<^«  line  of  Treaty    of  Lochaber.    Oct.  /S,  /770 
xxxxxxx  Done/son's  L/'ne.  J 77/ 
iriniiiiiiiiiui   Trsnsy/vanfa-    /lifarch  /4-/7,  /77S 
..••■•••<<..  Wstsuga  and  Broivn^s  Purc/ioses.       /77^,i 

^ Fran/f/in.    1735  ^^^^ 

(f^/a/Zscffftei, 
WN  '/=■       O/r/o 


OHIO 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 

tlement  brought  powerful  pressure  to  bear 
upon  northern  Tennessee,  the  point  of  least  re- 
sistance along  the  western  barrier.  Singularly 
enough,  this  advance  was  not  opposed  by  the 
Cherokees,  whose  towns  were  strung  across  the 
extreme  southeast  corner  of  Tennessee. 

When  Colonel  John  Donelson  ran  the  line 
in  the  latter  part  of  1771,  The  Little  Car- 
penter, who  with  other  Indian  chiefs  accom- 
panied the  surveying  party,  urged  that  the  line 
agreed  upon  at  Lochaber  should  break  off  at 
the  head  of  the  Louisa  River,  and  should  run 
thence  to  the  mouth  thereof,  and  thence  up 
the  Ohio  to  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha. 
For  this  increase  in  the  territory  of  Virginia 
they  of  course  expected  additional  payment. 
As  a  representative  of  Virginia,  Donelson 
agreed  to  the  proposed  alteration  in  the  bound- 
ary line ;  and  accordingly  promised  to  send  the 
Cherokees,  in  the  following  spring,  a  sum  al- 
leged by  them  to  have  been  fixed  at  five  hun- 
dred pounds,  in  compensation  for  the  addi- 
tional area.     This  informal  agreement,  it  is 

193 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

(^  ston  River,  south  and  east  of  Long  Island; 
believed,  was  never  ratified  by  Virginia;  nor 
was  the  promised  compensation  ever  paid  the 
Cherokees.^^" 

Under  the  belief  that  the  land  belonged  to 
Virginia,  Jacob  Brown  with  one  or  two  fam- 
ilies from  North  Carolina  settled  in  1771  upon 
a  tract  of  land  on  the  northern  bank  of  the 
Nonachunheh  (corruption,  Nolichucky)  River. 
During  the  same  year,  an  experimental  line 
run  westward  from  Steep  Rock  and  Beaver 
Creek  by  Anthony  Bledsoe  showed  that  upon 
the  extension  of  the  boundary  line,  these  set- 
tlers would  fall  within  the  bounds  of  North 
Carolina.  Although  thus  informally  warned 
of  the  situation,  the  settlers  made  no  move  to 
vacate  the  lands.  But  in  the  following  year, 
after  the  running  of  Donelson's  line,  Alexan- 
der Cameron,  Stuart's  deputy,  required  "all 
persons  who  had  made  settlements  beyond  the 
said  line  to  relinquish  them."  Thus  officially 
warned.  Brown  and  his  companions  removed  to 
Watauga. ^^^  Cameron's  order  did  not  apply, 
however,  to  the  settlement  north  of  the  Hol- 

194 


WATAUGA— HAVEN  OF  LIBERTY 

and  the  settlement  in  Carter's  Valley,  north 
of  the  Holston  and  west  of  the  Long  Island, 
although  lying  without  the  Virginia  bound- 
ary, strangely  enough  remained  unmolested. 
The  order  was  directed  at  the  Watauga  set- 
tlers, who  were  seated  south  of  the  Holston 
River  in  the  Watauga  Valley.  ( See  map  for 
settlements  and  treaty  lines.) 

The  plight  in  which  the  Watauga  settlers 
now  found  themselves  was  truly  desperate; 
and  the  way  in  which  they  surmounted  this 
apparently  insuperable  difficulty  is  one  of  the 
most  striking  and  characteristic  events  in  the 
pre-Revolutionary  history  of  the  Old  South- 
west. It  exhibits  the  indomitable  will  and  fer- 
tile resource  of  the  American  character  at  the 
margin  of  desperation.  The  momentous  in- 
fluence of  the  Watauga  settlers,  inadequately 
reckoned  hitherto  by  historians,  was  soon  to 
make  itself  powerfully  felt  in  the  first  epochal 
movement  of  westward  expansion. 


195 


CHAPTER  XIII 

OPENING   THE   GATEWAY — DUNMORE's   WAR 

Virginia,  we  conceive,  can  claim  this  Country  [Kentucky] 
with  the  greatest  justice  and  propriety,  its  within  the  Limits 
of  their  Charter.  They  Fought  and  bled  for  it.  And  had 
it  not  been  for  the  memorable  Battle,  at  the  Great  TCanaway 
those  vast  regions  had  yet  continued  inaccessable. 

— The  Harrodsburg  Petition.    June  7-15,  1776. 

IT  was  fortunate  for  the  Watauga  settlers 
that  the  Indians  and  the  whites  were  on 
the  most  peaceful  terms  with  each  other  at  the 
time  the  Watauga  Valley  was  shown,  by  the 
running  of  the  boundary  line,  to  lie  within  the 
Indian  reservation.  With  true  American  self- 
reliance,  the  settlers  met  together  for  delibera- 
tion and  counsel,  and  deputed  James  Robert- 
son and  John  Been,  as  stated  by  Tennessee's 
first  historian,  "to  treat  with  their  landlords, 
and  agree  upon  articles  of  accomodation  and 
friendship.  The  attempt  succeeded.  For 
though  the  Indians  refused  to  give  up  the  land 

196 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

gratuitously,  they  consented,  for  a  stipulated 
amount  of  merchandise,  muskets,  and  other 
articles  of  convenience,  to  lease  all  the  coun- 
try on  the  waters  of  the  Watauga."  ^^^  In  ad- 
dition to  the  land  thus  leased  for  ten  years, 
several  other  tracts  were  purchased  from  the 
Indians  by  Jacob  Brown,  who  reoccupied  his 
former  location  on  the  Nolichucky. 

In  taking  this  daring  step,  the  Watauga 
settlers  moved  into  the  spotlight  of  national 
history.  For  the  inevitable  consequence  of 
leasing  the  territory  was  the  organization  of 
a  form  of  government  for  the  infant  settle- 
ment. Through  his  familiarity  with  the  North 
Carolina  type  of  "association,"  in  which  the 
settlers  had  organized  for  the  purpose  of  "reg- 
ulating" abuses,  and  his  acquaintance  with  the 
contents  of  the  "Impartial  Relation,"  in  which 
Husband  fully  expounded  the  principles  and 
practices  of  this  association,  Robertson  was 
peculiarly  fitted  for  leadership  in  organizing 
this  new  government.  The  convention  at 
which  Articles  of  Association,  unfortunately 
lost,  were  drawn  up,  is  noteworthy  as  the  first 

197 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

governmental  assemblage  of  free-born  Ameri- 
can citizens  ever  held  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 
The  government  then  established  was  the  first 
free  and  independent  government,  democratic 
in  spirit,  representative  in  form,  ever  organ- 
ized upon  the  American  continent.  In  de- 
scribing this  mimic  republic,  the  royal  Gover- 
nor of  Virginia  says:  "They  appointed  mag- 
istrates, and  framed  laws  for  their  present  oc- 
casion, and  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  erected 
themselves  into,  though  an  inconsiderable,  yet 
a  separate  State."  ^^^  The  most  daring  spirit 
in  this  little  state  was  the  young  John  Sevier,  of 
French  Huguenot  family  (originally  spelled 
Xavier) ,  born  in  Augusta  County,  Virginia, 
on  September  23,  1745.  It  was  from  Millers- 
town  in  Shenandoah  County  where  he  was  liv- 
ing the  uneventful  life  of  a  small  farmer,  that 
he  emigrated  (December,  1773)  to  the  Wa- 
tauga region.  With  his  arrival  there  begins 
one  of  the  most  fascinating  and  romantic  ca- 
reers recorded  in  the  varied  and  stirring  annals 
of  the  Old  Southwest.  In  this  daring  and 
impetuous    young    fellow,    fair-haired,    blue- 

198 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

eyed,  magnetic,  debonair — of  powerful  build, 
splendid  proportions,  and  athletic  skill — we 
behold  the  gallant  exemplar  of  the  truly  heroic 
life  of  the  border.  The  story  of  his  life,  thrill- 
ing in  the  extreme,  is  rich  in  all  the  multi- 
colored elements  which  impart  romance  to  the 
arduous  struggle  of  American  civilization  in 
the  opening  years  of  the  republic. 

The  creative  impulses  in  the  Watauga  com- 
monwealth are  hinted  at  by  Dunmore,  who 
observes,  in  the  letter  above  quoted,  that  Wa- 
tauga "sets  a  dangerous  example  to  the  people 
of  America,  of  forming  governments  distinct 
from  and  independent  of  his  Majesty's  au- 
thority." It  is  true  that  the  experiment  was 
somewhat  limited.  The  organization  of  the 
Watauga  association,  which  constituted  a  tem- 
porary expedient  to  meet  a  crisis  in  the  affairs 
of  a  frontier  community  cut  off  by  forest  wil- 
derness and  mountain  barriers  from  the  reach 
of  the  arm  of  royal  or  provincial  government, 
is  not  to  be  compared  with  the  revolutionary 
assemblage  at  Boonesborough,  May  23,  1775, 
or  with  the  extraordinary  demands  for  inde- 

199 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

pendence  in  Mecklenburg  County,  North  Car- 
olina, during  the  same  month.  Nevertheless 
the  Watauga  settlers  defied  both  North  Caro- 
lina and  the  Crown,  by  adopting  the  laws  of 
Virginia  and  by  ignoring  Governor  Josiah 
Martin's  proclamation  (March  26,  1774)  "re- 
quiring the  said  settlers  immediately  to  retire 
from  the  Indian  Territories."  ^^^  Moreover, 
Watauga  really  was  the  parent  of  a  series  of 
mimic  republics  in  the  Old  Southwest,  grad- 
ually tending  toward  higher  forms  of  organi- 
zation, with  a  larger  measure  of  individual  lib- 
erty. Watauga,  Transylvania,  Cumberland, 
Franklin  represent  the  evolving  political  gen- 
ius of  a  free  people  under  the  creative  leader- 
ship of  three  constructive  minds — James  Rob- 
ertson, John  Sevier,  and  Richard  Henderson. 
Indeed,  Watauga  furnished  tb  Judge  Hender- 
son precisely  the  "dangerous  example"  of 
which  Dunmore  prophetically  speaks.^^^ 

Immediately  upon  his  return  in  1771  from 
the  extended  exploration  of  Kentucky,  Daniel 
Boone  as  already  noted  was  engaged  as  secret 

200 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

agent,  to  treat  with  the  Cherokees  for  the  lease 
or  purchase  of  the  trans- Alleghany  region,  on 
behalf  of  Judge  Henderson  and  his  associates. 
Embroiled  in  the  exciting  issues  of  the  Regu- 
lation and  absorbed  by  his  confining  duties  as 
colonial  judge,  Henderson  was  unable  to  put 
his  bold  design  into  execution  until  after  the 
expiration  of  the  court  itself  which  ceased  to 
exist  in  1773.  Disregarding  the  royal  procla- 
mation of  1763  and  Locke's  Fundamental 
Constitutions  for  the  Carolinas,  which  forbade 
private  parties  to  purchase  lands  from  the  In- 
dians, Judge  Henderson  applied  to  the  high- 
est judicial  authorities  in  England  to  know  if 
there  was  any  law  in  existence  forbidding  pur- 
chase of  lands  from  the  Indian  tribes.  Lord 
Mansfield  gave  Judge  Henderson  the  "sanc- 
tion of  his  great  authority  in  favor  of  the  pur- 
chase." ^^^  Lord  Chancellor  Camden  and  Mr. 
Yorke  had  officially  advised  the  King  in  1757, 
in  regard  to  the  petition  of  the  East  Indian 
Company,  "that  in  respect  to  such  territories 
as  have  been,  or  shall  be  acquired  by  treaty  or 

201 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

grant  from  the  Great  Mogul,  or  any  of  the 
Indian  princes  or  governments,  your  Maj- 
esty's letters  patent  are  not  necessary;  the 
property  of  the  soil  vesting  in  the  company  by 
the  Indian  grant  subject  only  to  your  Maj- 
esties right  of  sovereignty  over  the  settlements, 
as  English  settlements,  and  over  the  inhabit- 
ants, as  English  subjects,  who  carry  with  them 
your  Majesties  laws  wherever  they  form  colo- 
nies, and  receive  your  Majesties  protection  by 
virtue  of  your  royal  charters."  ^^^  This  opin- 
ion, with  virtually  no  change,  was  rendered  in 
regard  to  the  Indian  tribes  of  North  America 
by  the  same  two  authorities,  certainly  as  early 
as  1769;  ^^^  and  a  true  copy,  made  in  London, 
April  1,  1772,  was  transmitted  to  Judge  Hen- 
derson.^^*' Armed  with  the  legal  opinions  re- 
ceived from  England,  Judge  Henderson  was 
fully  persuaded  that  there  was  no  legal  bar 
whatsoever  to  his  seeking  to  acquire  by  pur- 
chase from  the  Cherokees  the  vast  domain  of 
the  trans-Alleghany/^^  A  golden  dream  of 
empire,  with  its  promise  of  an  independent  re- 
public in  the  form  of  a  proprietary  colony, 

202 


a 

=r   i-H 

i  2 

3   w 

S.  H 


05 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

casts  him  under  the  spell  of  its  alluring  glam- 
our. 

In  the  meantime,  the  restless  Boone,  impa- 
tient over  the  delay  in  the  consummation  of 
Judge  Henderson's  plans,  resolved  to  establish 
himself  in  Kentucky  upon  his  own  responsi- 
bility. Heedless  of  the  question  of  title  and 
the  certain  hazards  incident  to  invading  the 
territory  of  hostile  savages,  Boone  designated 
a  rendezvous  in  Powell's  Valley  where  he  and 
his  party  of  five  families  were  to  be  met  by 
a  band  under  the  leadership  of  his  connections, 
the  Bryans,  and  another  company  led  by  Cap- 
tain William  Russell,  a  daring  pioneer  of  the 
Clinch  Valley.  A  small  detachment  of 
Boone's  party  was  fiercely  attacked  by  Shawa- 
noes  in  Powell's  Valley  on  October  10,  1773, 
and  almost  all  were  killed,  including  sons  of 
Boone  and  Russell,  and  young  John  and  Rich- 
ard Mendenhall  of  Guilford  County,  North 
Carolina.  As  the  result  of  this  bloody  repulse, 
Boone's  attempt  to  settle  in  Kentucky  at  this 
time  was  definitely  abandoned.  His  failure  to 
effect  a  settlement  in  Kentucky  was  due  to  that 

£03 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

characteristic  disregard  of  the  territorial  rights 
of  the  Indians  which  was  all  too  common 
among  the  borderers  of  that  period. 

This  failure  was  portentous  of  the  com- 
ing storm.  The  reign  of  the  Long  Hunters 
was  over.  Dawning  upon  the  horizon  was  the 
day  of  stern  adventurers,  fixed  in  the  desperate 
and  lawless  resolve  to  invade  the  trans-Alle- 
ghany  country  and  to  battle  savagely  with  the 
red  man  for  its  possession.  More  successful 
than  Boone  was  the  McAfee  party,  five  in 
number,  from  Botetourt  County,  Virginia, 
who  between  May  10th  and  September  1, 1773, 
safely  accomplished  a  journey  through  Ken- 
tucky and  carefully  marked  well-chosen  sites 
for  future  location.  ^^^  An  ominous  incident  of 
the  time  was  the  veiled  warning  which  Corn- 
stalk, the  great  Shawanoe  chieftain,  gave  to 
Captain  Thomas  BulHtt,  head  of  a  party  of 
royal  surveyors,  sent  out  by  Lord  Dunmore, 
Governor  of  Virginia.  Cornstalk  at  Chilli- 
cothe,  June  7,  1773,  warned  Bullitt  concern- 
ing the  encroachments  of  the  whites,  "designed 
to  deprive  us,"  he  said,  "of  the  hunting  of  the 

204 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

country,  as  usual  .  .  .  the  hunting  we  stand  in 
need  of  to  buy  our  clothing."  During  the 
preceding  siunmer,  George  Rogers  Clark,  an 
aggressive  young  Virginian,  with  a  small  party, 
had  descended  the  Ohio  as  low  as  Fish  Creek, 
where  he  built  a  cabin;  and  in  this  region  for 
many  months  various  parties  of  surveyors  were 
busily  engaged  in  locating  and  surveying  lands 
covered  by  military  grants.  Most  significant 
of  the  ruthless  determination  of  the  pioneers 
to  occupy  by  force  the  Kentucky  area  was 
the  action  of  the  large  party  from  Monon- 
gahela,  some  forty  in  number,  led  by  Captain 
James  Harrod,  who  penetrated  to  the  present 
Miller  County,  where  in  June,  1774,  they  made 
improvements  and  actually  laid  out  a  town. 

A  significant,  secretly  conducted  movement, 
of  which  historians  have  taken  but  little  ac- 
count, was  now  in  progress  under  the  manipu- 
lation of  Virginia's  royal  governor.  As  early 
as  1770  Dr.  John  Connolly  proposed  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  extensive  colony  south  of  the 
Ohio ;  and  the  design  of  securing  such  territory 
from  the  Indians  found  lodgment  in  the  mind 

205 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

of  Lord  Dunmore.     But  this  design  was  for 
the  moment  thwarted  when  on  October  28, 
1773,   an  order  was  issued   from  the  Privy 
Council  chamber  in  Whitehall  granting  an  im- 
mense territory,  including  all  of  the  present 
West  Virginia  and  the  land  alienated  to  Vir- 
ginia by  Donelson's  agreement  with  the  Chero- 
kees  (1772),  to  a  company  including  Thomas 
Walpole,  Samuel  Wharton,  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin, and  others.     This  new  colony,  to  be  named 
"Vandalia,"  seemed  assured.     A  clash  between 
Dunmore  and  the  royal  authorities  was  immi- 
nent; for  Virginia  under  her  sea-to-sea  charter 
claimed  the  vast  middle  region  of  the  continent, 
extending  without  known  limit  to  west  and 
northwest.     Moreover,   Dunmore  was   inter- 
ested in  great  land  speculations  on  his  own  ac- 
count ;  and  while  overtly  vindicating  Virginia's 
claim  to  the  trans- Alleghany  by  despatching 
parties   of   surveyors   to   the   western  wilder- 
ness to  locate  and  survey  lands  covered  by 
military  grants,  he  with  the  collusion  of  cer- 
tain  members   of   the   "Honourable   Board," 
his  council,  as  charged  by  Washington,  was 

206 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

more  than  "lukewarm,"  secretly  restricting 
as  rigorously  as  he  dared  the  extent  and 
number  of  the  soldiers'  allotments.  Accord- 
ing to  the  famous  Virginia  Remonstrance,  he 
was  in  league  with  "men  of  great  influence 
in  some  of  the  neighboring  states"  to  secure, 
under  cover  of  purchases  from  the  Indians, 
large  tracts  of  country  between  the  Ohio  and 
the  Mississippi.^^''  In  shaping  his  plans  Dun- 
more  had  the  shrewd  legal  counsel  of  Patrick 
Henry,  who  was  equally  intent  upon  making 
for  himself  a  private  purchase  from  the  Chero- 
kees.  It  was  Henry's  legal  opinion  that  the 
Indiana  purchase  from  the  Six  Nations  by  the 
Pennsylvania  traders  at  Fort  Stanwix  (No- 
vember 5,  1768)  was  vaHd;  and  that  purchase 
by  private  individuals  from  the  Indians  gave 
full  and  ample  title. ^^°  In  consequence  of 
these  facts,  William  Murray,  in  behalf  of  him- 
self and  his  associates  of  the  Illinois  Land 
Company,  and  on  the  strength  of  the  Camden- 
Yorke  decision,  purchased  two  large  tracts,  on 
the  Illinois  and  Ohio  respectively,  from  the 
Illinois  Indians  (July  5,  1773) ;  and  in  order 

207 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

to  win  the  support  of  Dunmore,  who  was  am- 
bitious to  make  a  fortune  in  land  speculation, 
organized  a  second  company,  the  Wabash 
(Ouabache)  Land  Company,  with  the  gover- 
nor as  the  chief  share-holder.  In  response  to 
Murray's  petition  on  behalf  of  the  Illinois 
Land  Company,  Dunmore  (May,  1774)  rec- 
ommended it  to  Lord  Dartmouth,  Secretary 
of  State  for  the  Colonies,  and  urged  that  it  be 
granted ;  and  in  a  later  letter  he  disingenuously 
disclaimed  any  personal  interest  in  the  Illinois 
speculation. 

The  party  of  surveyors  sent  out  under  the 
direction  of  Colonel  William  Preston,  on  the 
request  of  Washington  and  other  leading  east- 
ern men,  in  1774  located  lands  covered  by 
military  grants  on  the  Ohio  and  in  the  Ken- 
tucky area  for  prominent  Virginians,  includ- 
ing Washington,  Patrick  Henry,  William 
Byrd,  William  Preston,  Arthur  Campbell, 
William  Fleming,  and  Andrew  Lewis,  among 
others,  and  also  a  large  tract  for  Dr.  Con- 
nolly. Certain  of  these  grants  fell  within 
the  Vandalia  area;   and  in  his  reply    (Sep- 

208 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

tember  10,  1774)  to  Dumnore's  letter,  Lord 
Dartmouth  sternly  censui'ed  Dumnore  for 
allowing  these  grants,  and  accused  the  white 
settlers  of  having  brought  on,  by  such  un- 
warrantable aggressions,  the  war  then  rag- 
ing with  the  Indians.  This  charge  lay  at  the 
door  of  Dunmore  himself ;  and  there  is  strong 
evidence  that  Dunmore  personally  fomented 
the  war,  ostensibly  in  support  of  Virginia's 
charter  rights,  but  actually  in  order  to  further 
his  own  speculative  designs /^^  Dunmore's 
agent.  Dr.  Connolly,  heading  a  party  posing 
as  Virginia  militia,  fired  without  provocation 
upon  a  delegation  of  Shawanoe  chiefs  assem- 
bled at  Fort  Pitt  (January,  1774).  Taking 
advantage  of  the  alarming  situation  created 
by  the  conflict  of  the  claims  of  Virginia  and 
Pennsylvania,  Connolly,  inspired  by  Dunmore 
without  doubt,  then  issued  an  incendiary  circu- 
lar (April  21,  1774),  declaring  a  state  of  war 
to  exist.  Just  two  weeks  before  the  Battle 
of  the  Great  Kanawha,  Patrick  Henry  cate- 
gorically stated,  in  conversation  with  Thomas 
Wharton : 

209 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

that  he  was  at  Williamsburg  with  Ld.  D.  when 
Dr.  Conolly  first  came  there,  that  Conolly  is 
a  chatty,  sensible  man,  and  informed  Ld.  Dun- 
more  of  the  extreme  richness  of  the  lands  which 
lay  on  both  sides  of  the  Ohio;  that  the  prohi- 
bitoiy  orders  which  had  been  sent  him  relative 
to  the  land  on  the  hither  side  (or  Vandalia) 
had  caused  him  to  turn  his  thoughts  to  the 
opposite  shore,  and  that  as  his  Lordship  was 
determined  to  settle  his  family  in  America  he 
was  really  pursueing  this  war,  in  order  to  ob- 
tain by  purchase  or  treaty  from  the  natives  a 
tract  of  territory  on  that  side ;  he  then  told  me 
that  he  was  convinced  from  every  authority 
that  the  law  knew,  that  a  purchase  from  the 
natives  was  as  full  and  ample  a  title  as  could 
be  obtained,  that  they  had  Lord  Camden  and 
Mr.  York's  opinion  on  that  head,  which  opin- 
ion with  some  others  that  Ld.  Dunmore  had 
consulted,  and  with  the  knowledge  Conolly  had 
given  him  of  the  quality  of  the  country  and 
his  determined  resolution  to  settle  his  family 
on  this  continent,  were  the  real  motives  or 
springs  of  the  present  expedition.^^^ 

At  this  very  time,  Patrick  Henry,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  William  Byrd  3d  and  others,  was 
negotiating  for  a  private  purchase  of  lands 
from  the  Cherokees ;  and  when  Wharton,  after 

210 


LORD  DUN  MORE 

From   the    portrait   copied    by    W.    L.    Sheppard    from    an    original    in 
England,   in   the  Virginia   State   Library 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

answering  Henry's  inquiry  as  to  where  he 
might  buy  Indian  goods ,  remarked :  "It's 
not  possible  you  mean  to  enter  the  Indian  trade 
at  this  period,"  Henry  laughingly  replied: 
"The  wish-world  is  my  hobby  horse."  "From 
whence  I  conclude,"  adds  Wharton,  "he  has 
some  prospect  of  making  a  purchase  of  the 
natives,  but  where  I  know  not." 

The  war,  thus  promulgated,  we  beheve,  at 
Dunmore's  secret  instigation  and  heralded  by 
a  series  of  ghastly  atrocities,  came  on  apace. 
After  the  inhuman  murder  of  the  family  of  Lo- 
gan, the  Indian  chieftain,  by  one  Greathouse 
and  his  drunken  companions  (April  30th), 
Logan,  who  contrary  to  romantic  views  was  a 
black-hearted  and  vengeful  savage,  harried  the 
Tennessee  and  Virginia  borders,  burning  and 
slaughtering.  Unable  to  arouse  the  Chero- 
kees,  owing  to  the  opposition  of  Atta-kulla- 
kulla,  Logan  as  late  as  July  21st  said  in  a  letter 
to  the  whites:  "The  Indians  are  not  angry, 
only  myself,"  and  not  until  then  did  Dunmore 
begin  to  give  full  execution  to  his  warlike 
plans.     The   best   woodsmen   of   the   border, 

211 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Daniel  Boone  and  the  German  scout  Michael 
Stoner,  having  been  despatched  on  July  27th 
by  Colonel  William  Preston  to  warn  the  sur- 
veyors of  the  trans-Alleghany,  made  a  remark- 
able journey  on  foot  of  eight  hundred  miles 
in  sixty-one  days.  Harrod's  company  at 
Harrodsburg,  a  company  of  surveyors  at  Fon- 
tainebleau,  Floyd's  party  on  the  Kentucky, 
and  the  surveyors  at  Mann's  Lick,  thus 
warned,  hurried  in  to  the  settlements  and  were 
saved.  Meanwhile,  Dunmore,  in  command  of 
the  Virginia  forces,  invaded  territory  guaran- 
teed to  the  Indians  by  the  royal  proclamation  of 
1763  and  recently  (1774)  added  to  the  prov- 
ince of  Quebec,  a  fact  of  which  he  was  .not 
aware,  conducted  a  vigorous  campaign,  and 
fortified  Camp  Charlotte,  near  Old  Chillicothe. 
Andrew  Lewis,  however,  in  charge  of  the  other 
division  of  Dunmore's  army,  was  the  one  des- 
tined to  bear  the  real  brunt  and  burden  of  the 
campaign.  His  division,  recruited  from  the 
very  flower  of  the  pioneers  of  the  Old  South- 
west, was  the  most  representative  body  of  bor- 
derers of  this  region  that  up  to  this  time  had  as- 

212 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

sembled  to  measure  strength  with  the  red  men. 
It  was  an  army  of  the  true  stalwarts  of  the 
frontier,  with  fringed  leggings  and  hunting- 
capes,  rifles  and  powder-horns,  hunting-knives 
and  tomahawks. 

The  .Battle  of  the  Great  Kanawha,  at  Point 
Pleasant,  was  fought  on  October  10,  1774,  be- 
tween Lewis's  force,  eleven  hundred  strong, 
and  the  Indians,  under  Cornstalk,  somewhat 
inferior  in  numbers.  It  was  a  desultory  ac- 
tion, over  a  greatly  extended  front  and  in  very 
brushy  country  between  Crooked  Creek  and 
the  Ohio.  Throughout  the  long  day,  the  In- 
dians fought  with  rare  craft  and  stubborn  brav- 
ery— loudly  cursing  the  white  men,  cleverly 
picking  off  their  leaders,  and  derisively  inquir- 
ing, in  regard  to  the  absence  of  the  fifes: 
"Where  are  your  whistles  now?"  Slowly  re- 
treating, they  sought  to  draw  the  whites  into 
an  ambuscade  and  at  a  favorable  moment  to 
"drive  the  Long  Knives  like  bullocks  into  the 
river."  No  marked  success  was  achieved  on 
either  side  until  near  sunset,  when  a  flank 
movement   directed  by  young  Isaac   Shelby 

213 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

alarmed  the  Indians,  who  mistook  this  party 
for  the  expected  reinforcement  under  Chris- 
tian, and  retired  across  the  Ohio.  In  the 
morning  the  whites  were  amazed  to  discover 
that  the  Indians,  who  the  preceding  day  so 
splendidly  heeded  the  echoing  call  of  Corn- 
stalk, "Be  strong!  Be  strong!",  had  quit  the 
battle-field  and  left  the  victory  with  the 
whites.  ^''^ 

The  peace  negotiated  by  Dunmore  was  dur- 
able. The  governor  had  accomplished  his  pur- 
pose, defied  the  authority  of  the  crown,  and 
vindicated  the  claim  of  Virginia,  to  the  en- 
thusiastic satisfaction  of  the  backwoodsmen. 
While  tendering  their  thanks  to  him  and  avow- 
ing their  allegiance  to  George  III,  at  the  close 
of  the  campaign,  the  borderers  proclaimed 
their  resolution  to  exert  all  their  powers  "for 
the  defense  of  American  liberty,  and  for  the 
support  of  her  just  rights  and  privileges,  not 
in  any  precipitous,  riotous  or  tumultuous  man- 
ner, but  when  regularly  called  forth  by  the 
unanimous  voice  of  our  countrymen."  Dun- 
more's  War  is  epochal,  in  that  it  procured  for 

214 


OPENING  THE  GATEWAY 

the  nonce  a  state  of  peace  with  the  Indians, 
which  made  possible  the  advance  of  Judge 
Henderson  over  the  Transylvania  Trail  in 
1775,  and,  through  his  establishment  of  the 
Transylvania  Fort  at  Boonesborough,  the  ulti- 
mate acquisition  by  the  American  Confedera- 
tion of  the  imperial  domain  of  the  trans-Alle- 
ghany/^* 


215 


CHAPTER  XIV 

RICHABD    HENDERSON   AND   THE 
TRANSYLVANIA    COMPANY 

I  happened  to  fall  in  company,  and  have  a  great  deal 
of  conversation  with  one  of  the  most  singular  and  extraordi- 
nary persons  and  excentric  geniuses  in  America,  and  perhaps 
in  the  world.     His  name  is  Richard   Henderson. 

— J.  F.  D.  Smyth:     A  Tour  in  the  United  Staten 
of  America. 

EARLY  in  1774,  chastened  by  his  own  dis- 
astrous failure  the  preceding  autumn, 
Boone  advised  Judge  Henderson  that  the  time 
was  auspicious  for  opening  negotiations  with 
the  Cherokees  for  purchasing  the  trans-Alle- 
ghany  region/^^  In  organizing  a  company  for 
this  purpose,  Henderson  chose  men  of  action 
and  resource,  leaders  in  the  colony,  ready  for 
any  hazard  of  life  and  fortune  in  this  gigantic 
scheme  of  colonization  and  promotion.  The 
new  men  included,  in  addition  to  the  partners 
in  the  organization  known  as  Richard  Hender 

216 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

son  and  Company,  were  Colonel  John  Lut- 
trell,  destined  to  win  laurels  in  the  Revolution, 
and  William  Johnston,  a  native  of  Scotland, 
the  leading  merchant  of  Hillsborough."'' 

Meeting  in  Hillsborough  on  August  27, 
1774,  these  men  organized  the  new  company 
under  the  name  of  the  Louisa  Company.  In 
the  articles  then  drawn  up  they  agreed  to  "rent 
or  purchase"  a  tract  of  land  from  the  Indian 
owners  of  the  soil  for  the  express  purpose  of 
"settling  the  country."  Each  partner  obli- 
gated himself  to  "furnish  his  Quota  of  Ex- 
penses necessary  towards  procuring  the  grant." 
In  full  anticipation  of  the  grave  dangers  to 
be  encountered,  they  solemnly  bound  them- 
selves, as  "equal  sharers  in  the  property,"  to 
"support  each  other  with  our  lives  and  for- 
tunes." ^^^  Negotiations  with  the  Indians  were 
begun  at  once.  Accompanied  by  Colonel  Na- 
thaniel Hart  and  guided  by  the  experienced 
Indian-trader,  Thomas  Price,  Judge  Hender- 
son visited  the  Cherokee  chieftains  at  the  Otari 
towns.  After  elaborate  consultations,  the  lat- 
ter deputed  the  old  chieftain,  Atta-kulla-kulla, 

217 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

a  young  buck,  and  a  squaw,  "to  attend  the 
said  Henderson  and  Hart  to  North  Carohna, 
and  there  examine  the  Goods  and  Merchandize 
which  had  been  by  them  offered  as  the  Con- 
sideration of  the  purchase."  The  goods  pur- 
chased at  Cross  Creek  (now  Fayetteville, 
North  Carohna),  in  which  the  Louisa  Com- 
pany "had  embarked  a  large  amount,"  met  the 
entire  approval  of  the  Indians — the  squaw  in 
particular  shrewdly  examining  the  goods  in 
the  interest  of  the  women  of  the  tribe/*^ 

On  January  6,  1775,  the  company  was  again 
enlarged,  and  given  the  name  of  the  Transyl- 
vania Company — the  three  new  partners  being 
David  Hart,  brother  to  Thomas  and  Nathan- 
iel, Leonard  Henley  Bullock,  a  prominent 
citizen  of  Granville,  and  James  Hogg,  of 
Hillsborough,  a  native  Scotchman  and  one  of 
the  most  influential  men  in  the  colony.  In  the 
elaborate  agreement  drawn  up  reference  is  ex- 
plicitly made  to  the  contingency  of  "settling 
and  voting  as  a  proprietor  and  giving  Rules 
and  Regulations  for  the  Inhabitants  etc."  ^"^^ 
Hillsborough  was  the  actual  starting-point  for 

218 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

the  westward  movement,  the  first  emigrants 
traveling  thence  to  the  Sycamore  Shoals  of  the 
Watauga.  In  speaking  of  the  departure  of 
the  settlers,  the  first  movement  of  extended  and 
permanent  westward  migration,  an  eye-witness 
quaintly  says:  "At  this  place  [Hillsborough] 
I  saw  the  first  party  of  emigrant  families  that 
moved  to  Kentucky  under  the  auspices  of 
Judge  Henderson.  They  marched  out  of  the 
town  with  considerable  solemnity,  and  to  many 
their  destination  seemed  as  remote  as  if  it  had 
been  to  the  South  Sea  Islands."  ^^" 

Meanwhile,  the  "Proposals  for  the  encour- 
agement of  settling  the  lands  etc.,"  issued  on 
Christmas  Day,  1774,  were  quickly  spread 
broadcast  through  the  colony  and  along  the 
border.  ^^^  It  was  the  greatest  sensation  North 
Carolina  had  known  since  Alamance;  and 
Archibald  Neilson,  deputy-auditor  and  naval 
officer  of  the  colony,  inquired  with  quizzical 
anxiety:  "Pray,  is  Dick  Henderson  out  of 
his  head?"  The  most  liberal  terms,  proffered 
by  one  quite  in  possession  of  his  head,  were 
embodied  in  these  proposals.     Land  at  twenty 

219 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

schillings  per  hundred  acres  was  offered  to 
each  emigrant  settling  within  the  territory 
and  raising  a  crop  of  corn  before  September 
1,  1775,  the  emigrant  being  permitted  to  take 
up  as  much  as  five  hundred  acres  for  him- 
self and  two  hundred  and  fifty  acres  for  each 
tithable  person  under  him.  In  these  "Pro- 
posals" there  was  no  indication  that  the  low 
terms  at  which  the  lands  were  offered  would 
be  maintained  after  September  1,  1775.^^^  In 
a  letter  to  Governor  Dunmore  (January, 
1775),  Colonel  William  Preston,  county  sur- 
veyor of  Fincastle  County,  Virginia,  says: 
"The  low  price  he  [Henderson]  proposes  to 
sell  at,  together  with  some  further  encourage- 
ment he  offers,  will  I  am  apprehensive  induce 
a  great  many  families  to  remove  from  this 
County  (Fincastle)  &  Carolina  and  settle 
there."  ^^^  Joseph  Martin,  states  his  son,  "was 
appointed  entry-Taker  and  agent  for  the  Pow- 
ell Valley  portion"  of  the  Transylvania  Pur- 
chase on  January  20,  1775;  and  "he  (Joseph 
Martin)  and  others  went  on  in  the  early  part 
of  the  year  1775  and  made  their  stand  at  the 

220 


^'?  R .  Henry  Sbeltont  of  Albemarle  County, 


forewafn  2II  Ptifoi.s 
as  ]  do  not  :i])j)rciicm; 
Sliillino-,  but  that  lie  i- 


Mi 


i6iii  Day  of  librnu-.yiT;^, 
\  Ft /»-f.'/:rj  hut  :  1  !iis  is  to 
;-.  A(rijv,-,^ef,j  r>{  ("r,id  Bond, 
tt(i  'o.  the  laid  Sbilton  a  fu>?le 
,D.,ht.  ,      ^,   . 

/iNDLRSCN, 


1  i-LNV  _,\NDI:RSCN,     Junior, 

/a  company  of  Gentlemen  of  AV/^ 

■^  -*-  Carolina  bavins^,   for  a  lai£;e  and  va'.u-ble  Cor.fidcivit'o.-'.. 
purcbal'cdfKm  lite  Chiefs  cf  the  C^(rr!>/{-cf/rj//>».',  bynnd^-i  '. 
Conftnt  of  the  whole  Nation,  a  confidci-ablt- Tiaft  of  tl.i.;: 
nrrw czWciTranfylvcnia,  lyirg^on  tbekiveisCZi/o,  Cimtfi : 
Lcu!/h;    and  nnderftanding'  tlvat  maiy  People  are  defiiot  ■ 
comins^  Adventurers  in  tliaf  P.iLt  of  tSie  World,  and  wi/li  t 
the  Terms  on  wliicU  Lands  in  tliat  Country  may  ^e  had,  l!.i  . 
fore  heribv  inftirm  the  P-ihJic,    that  any Pcribn  who  \v\'.l 
and-  inhabit  "the  hitne  before  the  firft  Day  of  June  1776,  (. 
the  Privilepjc  of  taking  up  and  fitrveyiiig  for  himfelf 'job  A 
foreaclt  tithabie  PcrfoiJ  he  may  cany  v/itlihim  and  (eXtlc 
Acres,  on  tl;c  Payment  of  50,5.  Sleriing^/r  Hiiiuhe<.{,  ; 
an  yearlv  Quitient  of  4S.  like  Money,  to'roinnience  lu  ''■     i  c: 
i7?o.     Sucli  Pcrfons  asare  wiiliri^  to  become  Ptirchaleis  ni  »v  <<ii- 
iei(>ond  and  treat  with  l<lr .  fi^tiliat::  'Jokiijhn  in  Iluljhoi-oui^h,    aii(4 
Col.  John  IfiUnims  ni  GraniillcNcrtb  CavaHna,  or  Col.  R"l^ar.l 
Hetuierfon  at  Bccnjlorcugh;  in  7rmifyluciitia.-^—'T\\\%Co\iVL\\\  lies 
en  the  fcuth  Side  cf  the  Kivtrs  Olio  and  Lcuifa,  in  a  tempci  ate  and 
I'.calthy  Climate.     It  is  in  general  well  watered  with  Spi'ngs  and 
Riviiicts,  and  lias  fcveral  Rivers,  tip  which  Veflels  of  conlidciable 
I5u!  then  may  come  with  Eafc.     In  'lilFerent  Places  of  it  are  a  Num- 
ber of  Salt  Springs'  wheie  the  nr.kir.i;  of  Salt  has  been  tiied  wth 
great  Sucfcls,   nr.d  v.-hcrt,   with  CJci  tainty,    any  Quantity  needed 
may  bae.-.r.ly  rrd  cor.vcniiivtly  maiic.     Large  Trails  of  the  iW'iJ 
lie  j»fi  Lime-Hone,    and  in  i^vxral  Places  there  is  Abur.i''*ice  of 
Iron  Ore.     The  Fertility  of  the  Soil,  ar.d  Goodiiefs  of  i!ie  Range, 
aicioft  l\n  pal's  Belief}    and  it  is  at  prcient  well  ftored  with  hvff^lo. 
Elk,  Deer,  Bear,  B  aver,  fiTr.  and  the  Rivers  abound  \\(tii  Fifli 
of  various  Kinds.     Vail  Ciowdi.  cf  people  are  daily  flocking  to 
it,  and  many  Gentlemen  of  the  fiifl  Rank  and  Cliara«er(iJR\e  bji- 
gained  for  Lands  in  it ;   fothat  tliere  is  a  great  Appearance  d  a  i 
Sctilcinent,    and  that  it  wiii  !bon  become  a  conliderable  Colon' 
and  one  of  the  m.ofl  afrieeable  Coiintries  in  America.  (6) 

IIlTNTiNGTOUP,  Si/'t.r^.,   177 

THE  Lands  I  have  for  fome  Time  p 
advertjfe'd  for  Sale  are  not  as  yet  Ibid.     I  will  fell  them  at 
a  ver\'  low  Price,    and  allow  a  reafonable  Time  of  Payjiient  for 
Part  of  the  Money.      The  Region  why  I  have  net  fold  them  ws»« 
that  I  would  2'^  -  ""  Cre<.iit. 

4  ANTHONY    WINSTON. 


ADVERTISEMENT   OF  THE  TRANSYLVANIA   COMPANY 

From  The   Virginia  Gazette,   September  30,   1775 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

Very  spot  where  he  had  made  corn  several  years 
before."  ^^*  In  speaking  of  the  startling  de- 
sign, unmasked  by  Henderson,  of  establishing 
an  independent  government,  Colonel  Preston 
writes  to  George  Washington  of  the  contem- 
plated "large  Purchase  by  one  Col.°  Hender- 
son of  North  Carolina  from  the  Cherokees. 
...  I  hear  that  Henderson  talks  with  great 
Freedom  &  Indecency  of  the  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia, sets  the  Government  at  Defiance  &  says 
if  he  once  had  five  hundred  good  Fellows  set- 
tled in  that  Country  he  would  not  Value  Vir- 
ginia." ^^^ 

Early  in  1775  runners  were  sent  off  to  the 
Cherokee  towns  to  summon  the  Indians  to  the 
treaty  ground  at  the  Sycamore  Shoals  of  the 
Watauga;  and  Boone,  after  his  return  from  a 
hunt  in  Kentucky  in  January,  was  summoned 
by  Judge  Henderson  to  aid  in  the  negotia- 
tions preliminary  to  the  actual  treaty.  The 
dominating  figure  in  the  remarkable  assem- 
blage at  the  treaty  ground,  consisting  of 
twelve  hundred  Indians  and  several  hundred 
whites,  was  Richard  Henderson,  "comely  in 

221 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

person,  of  a  benign  and  social  disposition," 
with  countenance  betokening  the  man  of  strenu- 
ous action — "noble  forehead,  prominent  nose, 
projecting  chin,  firm-set  jaw,  with  kindness 
and  openness  of  expression."  Gathered  about 
him,  picturesque  in  garb  and  striking  in  ap- 
pearance, were  many  of  the  buckskin-clad  lead- 
ers of  the  border — ^James  Robertson,  John 
Sevier,  Isaac  Shelby,  William  Bailey  Smith, 
and  their  compeers — as  well  as  his  Carolina 
friends  John  Williams,  Thomas  and  Nathaniel 
Hart,  Nathaniel  Henderson,  Jesse  Benton,^ ^^ 
and  Valentine  Searcy. 

Little  was  accomplished  on  the  first  day  of 
the  treaty  (March  14th)  ;  but  on  the  next  day, 
the  Cherokees  offered  to  sell  the  section  bar- 
gained for  by  Donelson  acting  as  agent 
for  Virginia  in  1771.  Although  the  Indians 
pointed  out  that  Virginia  had  never  paid  the 
promised  compensation  of  five  hundred  pounds 
and  had  therefore  forfeited  her  rights,  Hen- 
derson flatly  refused  to  entertain  the  idea  of 
purchasing  territory  to  which  Virginia  had  the 
prior  claim.     Angered  by  Henderson's  refusal, 

222 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

The  Dragging  Canoe,  leaping  into  the  circle  of 
the  seated  savages,  made  an  impassioned  speech 
touched  with  the  romantic  imagination  peculiar 
to  the  American  Indian.  With  pathetic  elo- 
quence he  dwelt  upon  the  insatiable  land-greed 
of  the  white  men,  and  predicted  the  extinction 
of  his  race  if  they  committed  the  insensate 
folly  of  selling  their  beloved  hunting-grounds. 
Roused  to  a  high  pitch  of  oratorical  fervor, 
the  savage  with  uplifted  arm  fiercely  exhorted 
his  people  to  resist  further  encroachments  at 
all  hazards — and  left  the  treaty  ground.  This 
incident  brought  the  conference  to  a  startling 
and  abrupt  conclusion.  On  the  following  day, 
however,  the  savages  proved  more  tractable, 
agreeing  to  sell  the  land  as  far  south  as  the 
Cumberland  River.  In  order  to  secure  the 
additional  territory  watered  by  the  tributaries 
of  the  Cumberland,  Henderson  agreed  to  pay 
an  additional  sum  of  two  thousand  pounds. 
Upon  this  day  there  originated  the  ominous 
phrase  descriptive  of  Kentucky  when  The 
Dragging  Canoe,  dramatically  pointing  to- 
ward the  west,  declared  that  a  Dark  Cloud 

223 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

hung  over  that  land,  which  was  known  as  the 
Bloody  Ground. 

On  the  last  day,  March  17th,  the  negotia- 
tions were  opened  with  the  signing  of  the 
"Great  Grant."  The  area  purchased,  some 
twenty  millions  of  acres,  included  almost  all  the 
present  state  of  Kentucky,  and  an  immense 
tract  in  Tennessee,  comprising  all  the  territory 
watered  by  the  Cumberland  River  and  all  its 
tributaries.  For  "two  thousand  weight  of 
leather  in  goods"  Henderson  purchased  "the 
lands  lying  down  Holston  and  between  the 
Watauga  lease.  Colonel  Donelson's  line  and 
Powell's  Mountain"  as  a  pathway  to  Kentucky 
— the  deed  for  which  was  known  as  the  "Path 
Deed."  By  special  arrangement.  Carter's 
Valley  in  this  tract  went  to  Carter  and  Lucas ; 
two  days  later,  for  two  thousand  pounds, 
Charles  Robertson  on  behalf  of  the  Watauga 
Association  purchased  a  large  tract  in  the  val- 
leys of  the  Holston,  Watauga,  and  New  Riv- 
ers; and  eight  days  later  Jacob  Brown  pur- 
chased two  large  areas,  including  the  Noli- 
chucky  Valley.     (Compare  map.)     This  his- 

224 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

toric  treaty,  which  heralds  the  opening  of  the 
West,  was  conducted  with  absolute  justice  and 
fairness  by  Judge  Henderson  and  his  associ- 
ates. No  liquor  was  permitted  at  the  treaty 
ground;  and  Thomas  Price,  the  ablest  of  the 
Cherokee  traders,  deposed  that  "he  at  that  time 
understood  the  Cherokee  language,  so  as  to 
comprehend  everything  which  was  said  and  to 
know  that  what  was  observed  on  either  side  was 
fairly  and  truly  translated;  that  the  Cherokees 
perfectly  understood,  what  Lands  were  the 
subject  of  the  Treaty.  .  .  ."  The  amoimt 
paid  by  the  Transylvania  Company  for  the  im- 
perial domain  was  ten  thousand  pounds  ster- 
ling, in  money  and  in  goods. ^^^ 

Although  Daniel  Boone  doubtless  assisted 
in  the  proceedings  prior  to  the  negotiation  of 
the  treaty,  his  name  nowhere  appears  in  the 
voluminous  records  of  the  conference.  In- 
deed, he  was  not  then  present;  for  a  fortnight 
before  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  he  was  com- 
missioned by  Judge  Henderson  to  form  a 
party  of  competent  woodmen  to  blaze  a  pas- 
sage through  the  wilderness.     On  March  10th 

225 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

this  party  of  thirty  ax-men,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Boone,  started  from  the  rendezvous, 
the  Long  Island  of  Holston,  to  engage  in  the 
arduous  labor  of  cutting  out  the  Transylvania 
Trail/^« 

Henderson,  the  empire-builder,  now  faced 
with  courage  and  resolution  the  hazardous  task 
of  occupying  the  purchased  territory  and  estab- 
lishing an  independent  government.  No  mere 
financial  promoter  of  a  vast  speculative  enter- 
prise, he  was  one  of  the  heroic  figures  of  the 
Old  Southwest ;  and  it  was  his  dauntless  cour- 
age, his  unwavering  resolve  to  go  forward  in 
the  face  of  all  dangers,  which  carried  through 
the  armed  "trek"  to  a  successful  conclusion. 
At  Martin's  Station,  where  Henderson  and 
his  party  tarried  to  build  a  house  in  which  to 
store  their  wagons,  as  the  road  could  be  cleared 
no  further,  they  were  joined  by  another  party, 
of  five  adventurers  from  Prince  William 
County,  Virginia.^^®  In  Henderson's  party 
were  some  forty  men  and  boys,  with  forty  pack- 
horses  and  a  small  amount  of  powder,  lead, 

226 


^ 


/ 


or  '  /  A 


.^ 


FIRST   PAGE   OF  RICHARD    HENDERSON'S  DIARY 

From   the   original    owned   by   the    Wisconsin    State    Historical    Society 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

salt,  and  garden-seeds.  The  warning  freely 
given  by  Joseph  Martin  of  the  perils  of  the 
path  was  soon  confirmed,  as  appears  from  the 
following  entry  in  Henderson's  diary: 

Friday  the  7th.  [April]  About  Brake  of 
Day  began  to  snow.  About  11  oClock  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  Mr.  Luttrells  camp  that 
were  five  persons  kill"^.  on  the  road  to  the  Can- 
tuckie  by  Indians.  Cap\  [Nathaniel]  Hart, 
uppon  the  receipt  of  this  News  Retreated  back 
with  his  Company,  &  determined  to  Settle  in 
the  Valley  to  make  Corn  for  the  Cantucky 
people.  The  same  Day  Received  a  Letter 
from  Da"".  Boone,  that  his  Company  was  fired 
uppon  by  Indians,  Kill'd  Two  of  his  men — tho 
he  kept  the  ground  &  saved  the  Baggage  &^^®" 

The  following  historic  letter,  which  reveals 
alike  the  dogged  resolution  of  Boone  and  his 
reliance  upon  Henderson  and  his  company  in 
this  black  hour  of  disaster,  addressed  "Colonel 
Richard  Henderson — these  with  care,"  is  elo- 
quent in  its  simplicity: 

Dear  Colonel:  After  my  compliments  to 
you,  I  shall  acquaint  you  of  our  misfortunes. 

227 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

On  March  the  25  a  party  of  Indians  fired  on 
my  Company  about  half  an  hour  before  day, 
and  killed  Mr.  Twitty  and  his  negro,  and 
wounded  Mr.  Walker  very  deeply,  but  I  hope 
he  will  recover. 

On  March  the  28  as  we  were  hunting  for 
provisions,  we  found  Samuel  Tate's  son,  who 
gave  us  an  account  that  the  Indians  fired  on 
their  camp  on  the  27th  day.  My  brother  and 
I  went  down  and  found  two  men  killed  and 
sculped,  Thomas  McDowell  and  Jeremiah  Mc- 
Feters.  I  have  sent  a  man  down  to  all  the 
lower  companies  in  order  to  gather  them  all 
at  the  mouth  of  Otter  Creek. 

My  advice  to  you,  Sir,  is  to  come  or  send  as 
soon  as  possible.  Your  company  is  desired 
greatly,  for  the  people  are  very  uneasy,  but 
are  willing  to  stay  and  venture  their  lives  with 
you.  and  now  is  the  time  to  fluster  ate  their 
[the  Indians']  intentions,  and  keep  the  coun- 
try, whilst  we  are  in  it.  If  we  give  way  to 
them  now,  it  will  ever  be  the  case.  This  day 
we  start  from  the  battle  ground,  for  the  mouth 
of  Otter  Creek,  where  we  shall  immediately 
erect  a  Fort,  which  will  be  done  before  you 
can  come  or  send,  then  we  can  send  ten  men 
to  meet  you,  if  you  send  for  them. 

I  am,  Sir,  your  most  obedient 
Omble  Sarvent 

Daniel  Boone. 
228 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

N.B.  We  stood  on  the  ground  and  guarded 
our  baggage  till  day,  and  lost  nothing.  We 
have  about  fifteen  miles  to  Cantuck  [Kentucky 
River]  at  Otter  Creek.'^^ 

This  dread  intelligence  caused  the  hearts  of 
strong  men  to  quail  and  induced  some  to  turn 
back,  but  Henderson,  the  jurist-pioneer,  was 
made  of  sterner  stuff.  At  once  (April  8th)  he 
despatched  an  urgent  letter  in  hot  haste  to  the 
proprietors  of  Transylvania,  enclosing  Boone's 
letter,  infomiing  them  of  Boone's  plight  and 
urging  them  to  send  him  immediately  a  large 
quantity  of  powder  and  lead,  as  he  had  been 
compelled  to  abandon  his  supply  of  saltpeter 
at  Martin's  Station.  "We  are  all  in  high  spir- 
its," he  assures  the  proprietors,  "and  on  thorns 
to  fly  to  Boone's  assistance,  and  join  him  in 
defense  of  so  fine  and  valuable  a  country." 
Laconically  eloquent  is  this  simple  entry  in 
his  diary:  "Saturday  the  8th.  Started  ab*.  10 
"Clock  Crossed  Cumberland  Gap  about  4 
miles  met  about  40  persons  Returning  from 
the  Cantucky,  on  Ace*,  of  the  Late  Murders 
by  the  Indians  could  prevail  on  one  only  to 

229 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

return.  Meni°  Several  Virginians  who  were 
with  us  return'd." 

There  is  no  more  crucial  moment  in  early 
Western  history  than  this,  in  which  we  see  the 
towering  form  of  Henderson,  clad  in  the  pic- 
turesque garb  of  the  pioneer,  with  outstretched 
arm  resolutely  pointing  forward  to  the  "dark 
and  bloody  ground,"  and  in  impassioned  but 
futile  eloquence  pleading  with  the  pale  and 
panic-stricken  fugitives  to  turn  about,  to  join 
his  company,  and  to  face  once  more  the  mortal 
dangers  of  pioneer  conquest.  Significant  in- 
deed are  the  lines : 

Some  to  endure,  and  many  to  fail. 
Some  to  conquer,  and  many  to  quail, 
Toiling  over  the  Wilderness  Trail. 

The  spirit  of  the  pioneer  knight-errant  inspires 
Henderson's  words:  *Tn  this  situation,  some 
few,  of  genuine  courage  and  undaunted  reso- 
lution, served  to  inspire  the  rest;  by  the  help 
of  whose  example,  assisted  by  a  httle  pride  and 
some  ostentation,  we  made  a  shift  to  march 
on  with  all  the  appearance  of  gallantry,  and, 

230 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

cavalier  like,  treated  every  insinuation  of  dan- 
ger with  the  utmost  contempt." 

Fearing  that  Boone,  who  did  not  even  know 
that  Henderson's  cavalcade  was  on  the  road, 
would  be  unable  to  hold  out,  Henderson  real- 
ized the  imperative  necessity  for  sending  him 
a  message  of  encouragement.  The  bold 
young  Virginian,  William  Cocke,  volunteered 
to  brave  alone  the  dangers  of  the  murder- 
haunted  trail — to  undertake  a  ride  more  truly 
memorable  and  hazardous  than  that  of  Revere. 
"This  offer,  extraordinary  as  it  was,  we  could 
by  no  means  refuse,"  remarks  Henderson,  who 
shed  tears  of  gratitude  as  he  proffered  his  sin- 
cere thanks  and  wrung  the  brave  messenger's 
hand.  Equipped  with  "a  good  Queen  Anne's 
musket,  plenty  of  ammunition,  a  tomahawk, 
a  large  cuttoe  knife  [French,  couteau'\.  a 
Dutch  blanket,  and  no  small  quantity  of  jerked 
beef,"  Cocke  on  April  10th  rode  off  "to  the 
Cantuckey  to  Inform  Cap*  Boone  that  we  were 
on  the  road."  The  fearful  apprehensions  felt 
for  Cocke's  safety  were  later  relieved,  when 
along  the  road  were  discovered  his  letters  in- 

231 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

forming  Henderson  of  his  arrival  and  of  his 
having  been  joined  on  the  way  by  Page  Port- 
wood  of  Rowan.  On  his  arrival  at  Otter 
Creek,  Cocke  found  Boone  and  his  men,  and 
on  relating  his  adventures,  ''came  in  for  his 
share  of  applause."  Boone  at  once  despatched 
the  master  woodman,  Michael  S toner,  with 
pack-horses  to  assist  Henderson's  party,  which 
he  met  on  April  18th  at  their  encampment  "in 
the  Eye  of  the  Rich  Land."  Along  with  "Ex- 
cellent Beef  in  plenty,"  Stoner  brought  the 
story  of  Boone's  determined  stand  and  an  ac- 
count of  the  erection  of  a  rude  little  fortifica- 
tion which  they  had  hurriedly  thrown  up  to 
resist  attack.  With  laconic  significance  Hen- 
derson pays  the  following  tribute  to  Boone 
which  deserves  to  be  perpetuated  in  national 
annals:  "It  was  owing  to  Boone's  confidence 
in  us,  and  the  people's  in  him,  that  a  stand 
was  ever  attempted  in  order  to  wait  for  our 
coming." 

In  the  course  of  their  journey  over  the 
mountains  and  through  the  wilderness,  the 
pioneers  forgot  the  trials  of  the  trail  in  the 

232 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

face  of  the  surpassing  beauties  of  the  country. 
The  Cumberlands  were  covered  with  rich  un- 
dergrowth of  the  red  and  white  rhododendron, 
the  delicate  laurel,  the  mountain  ivy,  the  flame- 
azalea,  the  spicewood,  and  the  cane;  while  the 
white  stars  of  the  dogwood  and  the  carmine 
blossoms  of  the  red-bud,  strewn  across  the 
verdant  background  of  the  forest,  gleamed  in 
the  eager  air  of  spring.  "To  enter  uppon  a 
detail  of  the  Beuty  &  Goodness  of  our  Coun- 
try," writes  Nathaniel  Henderson,  "would  be 
a  task  too  arduous.  .  .  .  Let  it  suffice  to  tell 
you  it  far  exceeds  any  country  I  ever  saw  or 
herd  off.  I  am  conscious  its  out  of  the  power 
of  any  man  to  make  you  clearly  sensible  of 
the  great  Beuty  and  Richness  of  Kentucky." 
Young  Felix  Walker,  endowed  with  more 
vivid  powers  of  description,  says  with  a  touch 
of  native  eloquence : 

Perhaps  no  Adventureor  Since  the  days  of 
donquicksotte  or  before  ever  felt  So  Cheerful  & 
Hated  in  prospect,  every  heart  abounded  with 
Joy  &  excitement  ...  &  exclusive  of  the 
Novelties  of  the  Journey  the  advantages  & 

233 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

accumalations  arising  on  the  Settlement  of  a 
new  Country  was  a  dazzling  object  with  many 
of  our  Company.  ...  As  the  Cain  ceased,  we 
began  to  discover  the  pleasing  &  Rapturous 
appearance  of  the  plains  of  Kentucky,  a  New 
Sky  &  Strange  Earth  to  be  presented  to  our 
view.  ...  So  Rich  a  Soil  we  had  never  Saw 
before,  Covered  with  Clover  in  full  Bloom,  the 
Woods  alive  abounding  in  wild  Game,  turkeys 
so  numerous  that  it  might  be  said  there  ap- 
peared but  one  flock  Universally  Scattered  in 
the  woods  ...  it  appeared  that  Nature  in  the 
profusion  of  her  Bounties,  had  Spread  a  feast 
for  all  that  lives,  both  for  the  Animal  &  Ra- 
tional World,  a  Sight  so  delightful  to  our  View 
and  grateful  to  our  feelings  almost  Induced  us, 
in  Immitation  of  Columbus  in  Transport  to 
Kiss  the  Soil  of  Kentucky,  as  he  haild  & 
Saluted  the  sand  on  his  first  setting  his  foot 
on  the  Shores  of  America.  ^''^ 

On  the  journey  Henderson  was  joined  in 
Powell's  Valley  by  Benjamin  Logan,  after- 
ward so  famous  in  Kentucky  annals,  and  a 
companion,  William  Galaspy.  At  the  Crab 
Orchard  they  left  Henderson's  party;  and 
turning  their  course  westward  finally  pitched 
camp  in  the  present  Lincoln  County,  where 

234 


RICHARD  HENDERSON 

Logan  subsequently  built  a  fort.  On  Sunday, 
April  16th,  on  Scaggs's  Creek,  Henderson 
records:  "About  12  oClock  Met  James  Mc- 
Afee with  18  other  persons  Returning  from 
Cantucky."  They  advised  Henderson  of  the 
"troublesomeness  and  danger"  of  the  Indians, 
says  Robert  McAfee  junior:  "but  Henderson 
assured  them  that  he  had  purchased  the  whole 
country  from  the  Indians,  that  it  belonged  to 
him,  and  he  had  named  it  Transylvania.  .  .  . 
Robt,  Samuel,  and  William  McAfee  and  3 
others  were  inclined  to  return,  but  James  op- 
posed it,  alleging  that  Henderson  had  no  right 
to  the  land,  and  that  Virginia  had  previously 
bought  it.  The  former  (6)  returned  with 
Henderson  to  Boonesborough."  Among  those 
who  had  joined  Henderson's  party  was  Abra- 
ham Hanks  from  Virginia,  the  maternal  grand- 
father of  Abraham  Lincoln;  but  alarmed  by 
the  stories  brought  by  Stewart  and  his  party 
of  fugitives.  Hanks  and  Drake,  as  recorded 
by  William  Calk  on  that  day  (April  13th), 
turned  back.  ^^^ 

At  last  the  founder  of  Kentucky  with  his 
235 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

little  band  reached  the  destined  goal  of  their 
arduous  journeyings.  Henderson's  record  on 
his  birthday  runs:  "Thursday  the  20th 
[April]  Arrived  at  Fort  Boone  on  the 
Mouth  of  Oter  Creek  Cantuckey  River  where 
we  were  Saluted  by  a  running  fire  of  about 
25  Guns;  all  that  was  then  at  Fort.  .  .  .  The 
men  appeared  in  high  spirits  &  much  rejoiced 
in  our  arrival."  It  is  a  coincidence  of  his- 
toric interest  that  just  one  day  after  the  em- 
battled farmers  at  Lexington  and  Concord 
"fired  the  shots  heard  round  the  world,"  the 
echoing  shots  of  Boone  and  his  sturdy  back- 
woodsmen rang  out  to  announce  the  arrival  of 
the  proprietor  of  Transylvania  and  the  birth 
of  the  American  West. 


236 


CHAPTER  XV 

TRANSYLVANIA — A   WILDERNESS 
COMMONWEALTH 

You  are  about  a  work  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the 
well-being  of  this  country  in  general,  in  which  the  interest 
and  security  of  each  and  every  individual  are  inseparably 
connected.  .  .  .  Our  peculiar  circumstances  in  this  remote  coun- 
try, surrounded  on  all  sides  with  difficulties,  and  equally  sub- 
ject to  one  common  danger,  which  threatens  our  common 
overthrow,  must,  I  think,  in  their  effects,  secure  to  us  an 
union  of  interests,  and,  consequently,  that  harmony  in  opinion, 
so  essential  to  the  forming  good,  wise  and  wholesome  laws. 

— Judge    Richard    Henderson:     Address    to    the 
Legislature  of  Transylvania,  May  23,  1775. 

THE  independent  spirit  displayed  by  the 
Transylvania  Company,  and  Hender- 
son's procedure  in  open  defiance  of  the  royal 
governors  of  both  North  Carolina  and  Vir- 
ginia, naturally  aroused  grave  alarm  through- 
out these  colonies  and  South  Carolina.  "This 
in  my  Opinion,"  says  Preston  in  a  letter  to 
George  Washington  (January  31,  1775), 
"will  soon  become  a  serious  Affair,  &  highly 

287 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

deserves  the  Attention  of  the  Government. 
For  it  is  certain  that  a  vast  Number  of  People 
are  preparing  to  go  out  and  settle  on  this  Pur- 
chase; and  if  once  they  get  fixed  there,  it  will 
be  next  to  impossible  to  remove  them  or  reduce 
them  to  Obedience ;  as  they  are  so  far  from  the 
Seat  of  Government.  Indeed  it  may  be  the 
Cherokees  will  support  them."  ^^^  Governor 
Martin  of  North  Carolina,  already  deeply  dis- 
turbed in  anticipation  of  the  coming  revolu- 
tionary cataclysm,  thundered  in  what  was  gen- 
erally regarded  as  a  forcible-feeble  proclama- 
tion (February  19,  1775)  against  "Richard 
Henderson  and  his  Confederates"  in  their 
"daring,  unjust  and  unwarrantable  proceed- 
ings." ^^^  In  a  letter  to  Dartmouth  he  de- 
nounces "Henderson  the  famous  invader"  and 
dubs  the  Transylvania  Company  "an  infamous 
Company  of  land  Pyrates." 

Officials  who  were  themselves  eager  for  land 
naturally  opposed  Henderson's  plans.  Lord 
Dunmore,  who  in  1774,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
heavily  interested  in  the  Wabash  Land  Com- 
pany engineered  by  William  Murray,  took  the 

238 


TRANSYLVANIA 

ground  that  the  Wabash  purchase  was  valid 
under  the  Camden- Yorke  decision.  This  is  so 
stated  in  the  records  of  the  Ilhnois  Company, 
Hkewise  under  Murray's  control.  But  al- 
though the  "Ouabache  Company,"  of  which 
Dunmore  was  a  leading  member,  was  initiated 
as  early  as  May  16,  1774,  the  purchase  of  the 
territory  was  not  formally  effected  until  Oc- 
tober 18,  1775 — too  late  to  benefit  Dunmore, 
then  deeply  embroiled  in  the  preliminaries  to 
the  Revolution.  Under  the  cover  of  his 
agent's  name,  it  is  believed,  Dunmore,  with  his 
"passion  for  land  and  fees,"  illegally  entered 
tracts  aggregating  thousands  of  acres  of  land 
surveyed  by  the  royal  surveyors  in  the  summer 
of  1774  for  Dr.  John  Connolly.''^  Early  in 
this  same  year,  Patrick  Henry,  who,  as  already 
pointed  out,  had  entered  large  tracts  in  Ken- 
tucky in  violation  of  Virginia's  treaty  obliga- 
tions with  the  Cherokees,  united  with  William 
Byrd  3d,  John  Page,  Ralph  Wormley,  Samuel 
Overton,  and  William  Christian,  in  the  effort 
to  purcihase  from  the  Cherokees  a  tract  of  land 
west  of  Donelson's  line,  being  firmly  persuaded 

239 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

of  the  validity  of  the  Camden- Yorke  opinion. 
Their  agent,  William  Kenedy,  considerably 
later  in  the  year,  went  on  a  mission  to  the 
Cherokee  towns,  and  upon  his  return  reported 
that  the  Indians  might  be  induced  to  sell. 
When  it  became  known  that  Judge  Henderson 
had  organized  the  Transylvania  Company  and 
anticipated  Patrick  Henry  and  his  associates, 
Colonel  Arthur  Campbell;  as  he  himself  states, 
applied  to  several  of  the  partners  of  the 
Transylvania  Company  on  behalf  of  Patrick 
Henry,  requesting  that  Henry  be  taken  in  as 
a  partner.^^^  It  was  afterward  stated,  as  com- 
monly understood  among  the  Transylvania 
proprietors,  that  both  Patrick  Henry  and 
Thomas  Jefferson  desired  to  become  members 
of  the  company;  but  that  Colonel  Richard 
Henderson  was  instrumental  in  preventing 
their  admission  "lest  they  should  supplant  the 
Colonel  [Henderson]  as  the  guiding  spirit  of 
the  company."  ^^^ 

Fully  informed  by  Preston's  elaborate  com- 
munication on  the  gravity  of  the  situation, 
Dunmore  acted  energetically,  though  tardily, 

24fO 


By  his  Excellency  the  Right  Honourable  JOHN  Earl  of  DUNMORE,  his  Majeft>'s 
Lieutenant  and  Governor  General  of  the  Colony  and  Dominion  of  Virginia,  and  Vice 
Admiral  of  the  fame.  ■» 


A    PROCLAMATION. 

V 1 H  o  1 N  i  A,  to  wit. 

WH  E  R  E  A  S  his  Msjcftf  iU,  M  the  Reqaefl  of  At  Aifembly  of  tbis  Colony.  jMTmit  tke  Wcftern  Boundjrf  Aereof  to  bt  natided  ^■J 
the  iimc  1»5  been  ran  tad  alccrtUDed  by  Coioael  Ooitel/ini,  and  other  Surveyor*,  deputed  for  the  Purpoft;  utd  whereM  his  MiJeRy 
faath.  for  the  greater  CoQveoteacc  of.  tod  the  prereittiog  of  LitigKtiou  and  Difputei  among,  loch  Perfons  as  Ihall  be  tanned  to  {ett'e  upon  any 
of  hi»  vat»at  Lands,  ordered  that  a]l  that  TnO  of  Lattd  included  within  the  afore&id  Boundary,  and  all  other  vacant  Lwds  within  this  Colony, 
be  furveyed  to  Diftricls,  and  laid  out  in  Lou  of  from  one  Hundred  to  one  Tliou-and  Acrta,  and  as  faft  as  the  faid  SurreJJf  Qiall  be  eomplcated  by 
the  Surveyoia,  duly  authorized,  and  the  Surveys  thereof  returned,  il.at  the  tands.  fu  fiitreycd  and  alioted,  be  put  up  to  poblic  Sale,  at  C':!<:h 
Time  and  Place  as  (hail  be  appointed  by  pubhc  Notice;  and  that  the  hiheft  Bidder  for  fueh  Lots  and  Parcels  of  Land,  atfuch  Sales,  be  the  Pur- 
chafer  thctetjf,  and  be  entitled  to  a  Grant  in  Fee  Simple  of  the  Land  fa  pnrchajcd  as  aforefjid.  by  Letters  Patent  under  tbe  |reatSeal  of  the  ColotFT, 
fohjea  to  no  Conditions  or  Refervationa  whatever,  other  than  the  Pa.ment  of  the  aouual  Quit-Rent  of  one  half  Penny  Starting  per  Acre,  and  alio 
of  all  Mines  of  Oold,  Silver,  and  preciona  Stones:  And  wheteas  Advice  lias  been  ntceircd,  that  one  Kiilxrit  HtiUrfin.  aodl»hcr  ditordeily  Perlou., 
hts  Aflbciates,  under  Pretence  of  a  Purchafc  made  fi-oni  the  Ih-Hom,  contrary  to  the  afbrelaid  Orders  and  Regulations  of  his  Majefly.  do  f«  up  a 
iClaim  to  the  Lands  of  the  Ctown  within  the  LimitJ  of  this  Colony  i  I  have  diought  6t,  therefore,  to  ilTue  diis  n>y  Proclanaiioil,  flrtdly  chamng 
iall  Juftices  of  the  Peace,  Sheriffs,  and  other  OlEcers,  civil  and  military,  to  nfe  their  utmofl  Endeavours  to  prevent  the  n^«T«iiable  and  illegsl 
;jt>e(igns  of  the  faid  ffe»tr>t  and  his  Abettoi? :  and  if  the  Cod  ««(rr>,  or  other,  concerned  w,th  him,  Oiall  take  PnlUion  of.  or  occupy  any 
il.nds  witldn  the  LioUts  of  hij  Majefty's  Government  of  ("^-/.W..,  merely  under  any  Porchafe,  or  pretended  Purchafe.  male  from  JW,».r,  widsoui 
Ly  o^r  Title,  that  he  or  they  be  r«ioired,  in  hi,  Majefty's  Name,  forthwith  to  dep«,,  and  relinquiil,  the  PoMon  fo  unjuKly  obtai^d ,  and 
[in  Cafe  ot  Rcfufal  and  of  violent  detamius  foch  PolMioo,  that  he  or  they  be  immediately  fined  and  impri(i»ed  in  the  Manner  drc  Laws  at  ladi 
'Cafes  dire  A. 
I  C  /  r  £  ,V  o»/rr  »/  Had,  W  tbi  Sid  o/  lie  Cah~i,  Iku  2iJI  Dj,  •/  March,  «  (*e  iji*  IVar  »/  i.r  «,V*'..&,/.. 

f  DUNMORE. 


GOD    fave    the    KIN  G. 


J 


LORD  DUNMORE'S  PROCLAMATION   AGAINST   THE 
TRANSYLVANIA  COMPANY 

From  an  unique  original  in   the  Public  Record   Office,  London 


TRANSYLVANIA 

to  prevent  the  execution  of  Henderson's  de- 
signs. On  March  21st  Dunmore  sent  flying 
through  the  back  countiy  a  proclamation,  de- 
manding the  immediate  relinquishment  of  the 
territory  by  "one  Richard  Henderson  and 
other  disorderly  persons,  his  associates,"  and 
"in  case  of  refusal,  and  of  violently  detaining 
such  possession,  that  he  or  they  be  immediately 
fined  and  imprisoned."  ^^^  This  proclamation, 
says  a  peppeiy  old  chronicler,  may  well  rank 
with  the  one  excepting  those  arch  traitors 
and  rebels,  Samuel  Adams  and  John  Han- 
cock, from  the  mercy  of  the  British  mon- 
arch. In  view  of  Dunmore's  confidence  in  the 
validity  of  the  Camden- Yorke  decision,  it  is 
noteworthy  that  no  mention  of  the  royal  proc- 
lamation of  1763  occurs  in  his  broadside;  and 
that  he  bases  his  objection  to  the  Transyl- 
vania purchase  upon  the  king's  instructions 
that  all  vacant  lands  "within  this  colony" 
be  laid  off  in  tracts,  from  one  hundred  to  one 
thousand  acres  in  extent,  and  sold  at  public 
auction.  This  proclamation  which  was  en- 
closed, oddly  enough,  in  a  letter  of  official  in- 

241 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

stnictions  to  Preston  warning  him  not  to  sur- 
vey any  lands  "beyond  the  line  run  by  Colonel 
Donaldson,"  proved  utterly  ineffective.  At 
the  same  time,  Dunmore  despatched  a  pointed 
letter  to  Oconostota,  Atta-kulla-kulla,  Judge's 
Friend,  and  other  Cherokee  chieftains,  noti- 
fying them  that  the  sale  of  the  great  tract  of 
land  below  the  Kentucky  was  illegal  and 
threatening  them  with  the  king's  displeasure 
if  they  did  not  repudiate  the  sale.^''^ 

News  of  the  plans  which  Henderson  had 
already  matured  for  establishing  an  independ- 
ent colony  in  the  trans-Alleghany  wilderness, 
now  ran  like  wild-fire  through  Virginia.  In 
a  letter  to  George  Washington  (April  9, 
1775),  Preston  ruefully  says:  "Henderson  I 
hear  has  made  the  Purchase  &  got  a  Convey- 
ance of  the  great  and  Valluable  Country  below 
the  Kentucky  from  the  Cherokees.  He  and 
about  300  adventurers  are  gone  out  to  take 
Possession,  who  it  is  said  intends  to  set  up  an 
independent  Government  &  form  a  Code  of 
Laws  for  themselves.  How  this  may  be  I 
cant  say,  but  I  am  affraid  the  steps  taken  by 

M2 


TRANSYLVANIA 

the  Government  have  been  too  late.  Before 
the  Purchase  was  made  had  the  Governor  in- 
terfered it  is  believed  the  Indians  would  not 
have  sold."  ''' 

Meanwhile  Judge  Henderson,  with  strenu- 
ous energy,  had  begun  to  erect  a  large  stock- 
aded fort  according  to  plans  of  his  own.  Cap- 
tain James  Harrod  with  forty-two  men  was 
stationed  at  the  settlement  he  had  made  the 
preceding  year,  having. arrived  there  before  the 
McAfees  started  back  to  Virginia;  and  there 
were  small  groups  of  settlers  at  Boiling 
Spring,  six  miles  southeast  of  Harrod's  settle- 
ment, and  at  St.  Asaph's,  a  mile  west  of  the 
present  Stanford.  A  representative  govern- 
ment for  Transylvania  was  then  planned. 
When  the  frank  and  gallant  Floyd  arrived  at 
the  Transylvania  Fort  on  May  3d,  he  "ex- 
pressed great  satisfaction,"  says  Judge  Hen- 
derson, "on  being  informed  of  the  plan  we  pro- 
posed for  Legislation  &  sayd  he  must  most 
heartily  concur  in  that  &  every  other  measure 
we  should  adopt  for  the  well  Govern*^  or  good  of 
the  Community  in  Gen\"     In  reference  to  a 

S43 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

conversation  with  Captain  James  Harrod  and 
Colonel  Thomas  Slaughter  of  Virginia,  Hen- 
derson notes  in  his  diary  (May  8th)  :  "Our 
plan  of  Legislation,  the  evils  pointed  out — the 
remedies  to  be  applyed  &c  &c  &c  were  Ac- 
ceeded  to  without  Hesitation.  The  plann  was 
plain  &  Simple — 'twas  nothing  novel  in  its  es- 
sence a  thousand  years  ago  it  was  in  use,  and 
found  by  every  year's  experience  since  to  be  un- 
exceptionable. We  were  in  four  distinct  set- 
tlem*'.  Members  or  delegates  from  every 
place  by  free  choice  of  Individuals  they  first 
having  entered  into  writings  solemnly  bind- 
ing themselves  to  obey  and  carry  into  Execu- 
tion Such  Laws  as  representatives  should  from 
time  to  time  make,  Concurred  with,  by  A  Ma- 
jority of  the  Proprietors  present  in  the  Coun- 
try." 

In  reply  to  inquiries  of  the  settlers,  Judge 
Henderson  gave  as  his  reason  for  this  assem- 
bling of  a  Transylvania  Legislature  that  "all 
power  was  derived  from  the  people."  Six 
days  before  the  prophetic  arrival  of  the  news 
of  the  Battle  of  Lexington  and  eight  days  be- 

S44 


TRANSYLVANIA 

fore  the  revolutionaiy  committee  of  Mecklen- 
burg County,  North  Carolina,  promulgated 
their  memorable  Resolves  establishing  laws  for 
an  independent  government,  the  pioneers  as- 
sembled on  the  green  beneath  the  mighty  plane- 
tree  at  the  Transylvania  Fort.  In  his  wise 
and  statesmanlike  address  to  this  picturesque 
convention  of  free  Americans  (May  23, 1775) , 
an  address  which  Felix  Walker  described  as 
being  "considered  equal  to  any  of  like  kind 
ever  delivered  to  any  deliberate  body  in  that 
day  and  time,"  Judge  Henderson  used  these 
memorable  words : 

You,  perhaps,  are  fixing  the  palladium,  or 
placing  the  first  corner  stone  of  an  edifice,  the 
height  and  magnificence  of  whose  superstruc- 
ture .  .  .  can  only  become  great  in  propor- 
tion to  the  excellence  of  its  foundation.  .  .  . 
If  any  doubt  remain  amongst  you  with  respect 
to  the  force  or  efficiency  of  whatever  laws  you 
now,  or  hereafter  make,  be  pleased  to  consider 
that  all  power  is  originally  in  the  people;  make 
it  their  interest,  therefore,  by  impartial  and 
beneficent  laws,  and  you  may  be  sure  of  their 
inclination  to  see  them  enforced. 

245 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

An  early  writer,  in  speaking  of  the  full- 
blooded  democracy  of  these  "advanced"  senti- 
ments, quaintly  comments;  "If  Jeremy  Ben- 
tham  had  been  in  existence  of  manhood,  he 
would  have  sent  his  compliments  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  Transylvania."  This,  the  first  repre- 
sentative body  of  American  freemen  which  ever 
convened  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  is  surely 
the  most  unique  colonial  government  ever  set 
up  on  this  continent.  The  proceedings  of  this 
backwoods  legislature — the  democratic  leader- 
ship of  the  principal  proprietor;  the  prudence 
exhibited  in  the  laws  for  protecting  game, 
breeding  horses,  etc.;  the  tolerance  shown  in 
the  granting  of  full  religious  liberty — all  dis- 
play the  acumen  and  practical  wisdom  of  these 
pioneer  law-givers.  As  the  result  of  Hender- 
son's tactfulness,  the  proprietary  form  of  gov- 
ernment, thoroughly  democratized  in  tone, 
was  complacently  accepted  by  the  backwoods- 
men. From  one  who,  though  still  under  royal 
rule,  vehemently  asserted  that  the  source  of  all 
political  power  was  the  people,  and  that  "laws 


TRANSYLVANIA 

derive  force  and  efficiency  from  our  mutual 
consent,"  Western  democracy  thus  born  in  the 
wilderness  was  "taking  its  first  political  lesson." 
In  their  answer  to  Henderson's  assertion  of 
freedom  from  alien  authority  the  pioneers  un- 
hesitatingly declared:  "That  we  have  an  ab- 
solute right,  as  a  political  body,  without  giving 
umbrage  to  Great  Britain,  or  any  of  the  colo- 
nies, to  form  rules  for  the  government  of  our 
little  society,  cannot  be  doubted  by  any  sensi- 
ble mind  and  being  without  the  jurisdiction 
of,  and  not  answerable  to  any  of  his  Majesty's 
courts,  the  constituting  tribunals  of  justice 
shall  be  a  matter  of  our  first  contempla- 
tion. ..."  In  the  establishment  of  a  consti- 
tution for  the  new  colony,  Henderson  with 
paternalistic  wisdom  induced  the  people  to 
adopt  a  legal  code  based  on  the  laws  of  Eng- 
land. Out  of  a  sense  of  self -protection  he  re- 
served for  the  proprietors  only  one  preroga- 
tive not  granted  them  by  the  people,  the  right 
of  veto.  He  clearly  realized  that  if  this  power 
were  given  up,  the  delegates  to  any  convention 

247 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Ihat  might  be  held  after  the  first  would  be  able 
lo  assume  the  claims  and  rights  of  the  proprie- 
tors. 

A  land-office  was  formally  opened,  deeds 
were  issued,  and  a  store  was  established  which 
supplied  the  colonists  with  powder,  lead,  salt, 
osnaburgs,  blankets,  and  other  chief  necessities 
of  pioneer  existence.  Writing  to  his  brother 
Jonathan  from  Leestown,  the  bold  young 
George  Rogers  Clark,  soon  to  plot  the  down- 
fall of  Transylvania,  enthusiastically  says 
(July  6,  1775)  :  "A  richer  and  more  Beauti- 
full  Cuntry  than  this  I  believe  has  never  been 
seen  in  America  yet.  Co\  Henderson  is  hear 
and  Claims  all  y*  Country  below  Kentucke. 
If  his  Claim  Should  be  good,  land  may  be  got 
Reasonable  Enough  and  as  good  as  any  in  y^ 
World."  ^"^^  Those  who  settled  on  the  south 
side  of  Kentucky  River  acknowledged  the 
vaHdity  of  the  Transylvania  purchase;  and 
Clark  in  his  Memoir  says :  "the  Proprietors  at 
first  took  great  pains  to  Ingratiate  themselves 
in  the  fav'.  of  the  people." 

In  regard  to  the  designs  of  Lord  Dunmore, 
248 


TRANSYLVANIA 

who,  as  noted  above,  had  illegally  entered  the 
Connolly  grant  on  the  Ohio  and  sought  to  out- 
law Henderson,  and  of  Colonel  William  Byrd 
3d,  who,  after  being  balked  in  Patrick  Heniy's 
plan  to  anticipate  the  Transylvania  Company 
in  effecting  a  purchase  from  the  Cherokees, 
was  supposed  to  have  tried  to  persuade  the 
Cherokees  to  repudiate  the  "Great  Treaty," 
Henderson  defiantly  says:  "Whether  Lord 
Dunmore  and  Colonel  Byrd  have  interfered 
with  the  Indians  or  not,  Richard  Henderson  is 
equally  ignorant  and  indifferent.  The  utmost 
result  of  their  efforts  can  only  sei^v^e  to  convince 
them  of  the  futility  of  their  schemes  and  possi- 
bly frighten  some  few  faint-hearted  persons, 
naturally  prone  to  reverence  great  names  and 
fancy  everything  must  shrink  at  the  magic  of 
a  splendid  title."  "^ 

Prompted  by  Henderson's  desire  to  petition 
the  Continental  Congress  then  in  session  for 
recognition  as  the  fourteenth  colony,  the 
Transylvania  legislature  met  again  on  the  first 
Thursday  in  September  and  elected  Richard 
Henderson  and  John  Williams,  among  others, 

249 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

as  delegates  to  the  gathering  at  Philadelphia.^^* 
Shortly  afterward  the  Proprietors  of  Transyl- 
vania held  a  meeting  at  Oxford,  North  Caro- 
lina (September  25, 1775) ,  elected  Williams  as 
the  agent  of  the  colony,  and  directed  him  to 
proceed  to  Boonesborough  there  to  reside  until 
April,  1776.  James  Hogg,  of  Hillsborough, 
chosen  as  Delegate  to  represent  the  Colony  in 
the  Continental  Congress,  was  despatched  to 
Philadelphia,  bearing  with  him  an  elaborate 
memorial  prepared  by  the  President,  Judge 
Henderson,  petitioning  the  Congress  "to  take 
the  infant  Colony  of  Transylvania  into  their 
protection."  ^"^ 

Almost  immediately  upon  his  arrival  in 
Philadelphia,  James  Hogg  was  presented  to 
"the  famous  Samuel  and  John  Adams."  The 
latter  warned  Hogg,  in  view  of  the  efforts  then 
making  toward  reconciliation  between  the  colo- 
nies and  the  king,  that  "the  taking  under  our 
protection  a  body  of  people  who  have  acted  in 
defiance  of  the  King's  proclamation,  will  be 
looked  on  as  a  confirmation  of  that  independent 
spirit  with  which  we  are  daily  reproached." 

250 


TRANSYLVANIA 

Jefferson  said  that  if  his  advice  were  followed, 
all  the  use  the  Virginians  should  make  of  their 
charter  would  be  ''to  prevent  any  arbitrary 
or  oppressive  government  to  be  established 
within  the  boundaries  of  it" ;  and  that  it  was  his 
wish  "to  see  a  free  government  established  at 
the  back  of  theirs  [Virginia's]  properly  united 
with  them."  He  would  not  consent,  however, 
that  Congress  should  acknowledge  the  colon}'' 
of  Transylvania,  until  it  had  the  approbation 
of  the  Virginia  Convention.  The  quit-rents 
imposed  by  the  company  were  denounced  in 
Congress  as  a  mark  of  vassalage;  and  many 
advised  a.  law  against  the  emplo}Tnent  of  ne- 
groes in  the  colony.  "They  even  threatened 
us  with  their  opposition,"  says  Hogg,  with 
precise  veracity,  "if  we  do  not  act  upon  liberal 
principles  when  we  have  it  so  much  in  our 
power  to  render  ourselves  immortal."  ^^® 


251 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   REPULSE   OF   THE  RED   MEN 

To  this  short  war  may  be  properly  attributed  all  the  kind 
feelings  and  fidelity  to  treaty  stipulations  manifested  by  the 
Cherokees  ever  afterwards.  General  Rutherford  instilled  into 
the  Indians  so  great  a  fear  of  the  whites,  that  never  afterwards 
M'ere  they  disposed  to  engage  in  any  cruelty,  or  destroy  any 
of  the  property  of  our  frontier  men. 

— DA\aD  L.  SwAix:     The  Indian  War  of  1776. 

DURING  the  summer  of  1775  the  pro- 
prietors of  Transylvania  were  con- 
fronted with  two  stupendous  tasks — that  of 
winning  the  favor  and  support  of  the  frontiers- 
men and  that  of  rallying  the  rapidly  dwindling 
forces  in  Kentucky  in  defense  of  the  settle- 
ments. Recognizing  the  difficulty  of  includ- 
ing Martin's  Station,  because  of  its  remote- 
ness, with  the  govermnent  provided  for  Tran- 
sylvania, Judge  Henderson  prepared  a  plan 
of  government  for  the  group  of  settlers  located 
in  Powell's  Valley.  In  a  letter  to  Martin 
(July  30th),  in  regard  to  the  recent  energetic 


THE  REPULSE  OF  THE  RED  MEN 

defense  of  the  settlers  at  that  point  against 
the  Indians,  Henderson  says :  "Your  spirited 
conduct  gives  me  much  pleasure.  .  .  .  Keep 
your  men  in  heart  if  possible,  now  is  our  time, 
the  Indians  must  not  drive  us/'  The  gloom 
which  had  been  occasioned  by  the  almost  com- 
plete desertion  of  the  stations  at  Harrodsburg, 
the  Boiling  Spring,  and  the  Transylvania 
Fort  or  Boonesborough  was  dispelled  with  the 
return  of  Boone,  accompanied  by  some  thirty 
persons,  on  September  8th,  and  of  Richard 
Callaway  with  a  considerable  party  on  Sep- 
tember 26th.  The  crisis  was  now  passed ;  and 
the  colony  began  for  the  first  time  really  to 
flourish.  The  people  on  the  south  side  of  the 
Kentucky  River  universally  accepted  proprie- 
tary rule  for  the  time  being.  But  the  seeds 
of  dissension  were  soon  to  be  sown  among 
those  who  settled  north  of  the  river,  as  well 
as  among  men  of  the  stamp  of  James  Harrod, 
who,  having  preceded  Henderson  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  settlement  in  Kentucky,  natu- 
rally resented  holding  lands  under  the  Tran- 
sylvania Company. 

£53 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

The  great  liberality  of  this  organization  to- 
ward incoming  settlers  had  resulted  in  immense 
quantities  of  land  being  taken  up  through  their 
land-office/^^  The  ranging,  hunting,  and 
road-building  were  paid  for  by  the  company; 
and  the  entire  settlement  was  furnished  with 
powder,  lead,  and  supplies,  wholly  on  credit, 
for  this  and  the  succeeding  year.  "Five  hun- 
dred and  sixty  thousand  acres  of  land  are  now 
entered,"  reports  Floyd  on  December  1st,  "and 
most  of  the  people  waiting  to  have  it  run 
out."  ^^*  After  Dunmore,  having  lost  his  hold 
upon  the  situation,  escaped  to  the  protection  of 
a  British  vessel,  the  Fowey,  Colonel  Preston 
continued  to  prevent  surveys  for  officers' 
grants  within  the  Transylvania  territory;  and 
his  original  hostility  to  Judge  Henderson  gave 
place  to  friendship  and  support. 

On  December  1st,  Colonel  John  Wilhams, 
resident  agent  of  the  Transylvania  Company, 
announced  at  Boonesborough  the  long-contem- 
plated and  widely  advertised  advance  in  price 
of  the  lands,  from  twenty  to  fifty  shillings  per 
hundred  acres,  with  surveying  fees  of  four  dol- 

^54 


THE  REPULSE  OF  THE  RED  MEN 

lars  for  tracts  not  exceeding  six  hundred  and 
forty  acres /^^  At  a  meeting  of  the  Transyl- 
vania legislature,  convened  on  December  21st, 
John  Floyd  was  chosen  surveyor  general  of 
the  colony,  Nathaniel  Henderson  was  placed 
in  charge  of  the  Entering  Office,  and  Rich- 
ard Harrison  given  the  post  of  secretary.  At 
this  meeting  of  the  legislature,  the  first  open 
expression  of  discontent  was  voiced  in  the 
"Harrodsburg  Remonstrance,"  questioning 
the  validity  of  the  proprietors'  title,  and  pro- 
testing against  any  increase  in  the  price  of 
lands,  as  well  as  the  taking  up  by  the  proprie- 
tors and  a  few  other  gentlemen  of  the  best 
lands  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio.  Every  effort 
was  made  to  accommodate  the  remonstrants, 
who  were  led  by  Abraham  Hite.  Office  fees 
were  abolished,  and  the  payment  of  quit-rents 
was  deferred  until  January  1,  1780.  Despite 
these  efforts  at  accommodation,  grave  doubts 
were  implanted  by  this  Harrodsburg  Remon- 
strance in  the  minds  of  the  people;  and  much 
discussion  and  discontent  ensued. 

By  midsummer,  177o,  George  Rogers  Clark, 
255 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

a  remarkably  enterprising  and  independent 
young  pioneer,  was  "engrossing  all  the  land 
he  could"  in  Kentucky.  Upon  his  return  to 
Virginia,  as  he  relates,  he  "found  there  was 
various  oppinions  Respecting  Hender'son 
claim,  many  thought  it  go[o]d,  others  douted 
whether  or  not  Virginia  coud  with  propriety 
have  any  pretentions  to  the  cuntrey."  ^^^ 
Jefferson  displayed  a  liberal  attitude  toward 
the  claims  of  the  Transylvania  proprietors ;  and 
Patrick  Henry  openly  stated  that,  in  his  opin- 
ion, "their  claim  would  stand  good."  But 
many  others,  of  the  stamp  of  George  Mason 
and  George  Washington,  vigorously  asserted 
Virginia's  charter  rights  over  the  Western  ter- 
ritory. ^^^  This  sharp  difference  of  opinion  ex- 
cited in  Clark's  mind  the  bold  conception  of 
seizing  the  leadership  of  the  country  and  mak- 
ing terms  with  Virginia  under  threat  of  seces- 
sion. 

With  the  design  of  effecting  some  final  dis- 
position in  regard  to  the  title  of  the  Transyl- 
vania proprietors,  Judge  Henderson  and 
Colonel  Williams  set  off  from  Boonesborough 

256 


THE  REPULSE  OF  THE  RED  MEN 

about  May  1st,  intending  first  to  appeal  to 
the  Virginia  Convention  and  ultimately  to  lay 
their  claims  before  the  Continental  Congress. 
"Since  they  have  gone,"  reports  Floyd  to  Pres- 
ton, "I  am  told  most  of  the  men  about  Har- 
rodsburg  have  re-assumed  their  former  reso- 
lution of  not  complying  with  any  of  the  office 
rules  whatever.  Jack  Jones,  it  is  said,  is  at 
the  head  of  the  party  &  flourishes  away  prodi- 
giously." ^^^  John  Gabriel  Jones  was  the  mere 
figurehead  in  the  revolt.  The  real  leader,  the 
brains  of  the  conspiracy,  was  the  unscrupu- 
lous George  Rogers  Clark.  At  Clark's  in- 
stance, an  eight-day  election  was  held  at  Har- 
rodsburg  (June  7-15),  at  which  time  a  peti- 
tion to  the  Virginia  Convention  was  drawn 
up ;  ^^^  and  Clark  and  Jones  were  elected  dele- 
gates. Clark's  plan,  the  scheme  of  a  bold 
revolutionist,  was  to  treat  with  Virginia  for 
terms;  and  if  they  were  not  satisfactory,  to 
revolt  and,  as  he  says,  "Establish  an  Inde- 
pendent Government"  .  .  .  "giving  away 
great  part  of  the  Lands  and  disposing  of  the 
Remainder."     In  a  second  petition,  prepared 

257 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

by  the  self-styled  "Committee  of  West  Fin- 
castle"  (June  20th),  it  was  alleged  that  "if 
these  pretended  Proprietors  have  leave  to  con- 
tinue to  act  in  their  arbitrary  manner  out  the 
controul  of  this  colony  [Virginia]  the  end  must 
be  evident  to  every  well  wisher  to  American 
Liberty."  ''' 

The  contest  which  now  ensued  between 
Richard  Henderson  and  George  Rogers  Clark, 
waged  upon  the  floor  of  the  convention  and 
behind  the  scenes,  resulted  in  a  conclusion  that 
was  inevitable  at  a  moment  in  American  his- 
tory marked  by  the  signing  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  Virginia,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  her  new  governor,  Patrick  Hemy,  put 
an  end  to  the  proprietary  rule  of  the  Tran- 
sylvania Company.  On  December  7th  such 
part  of  Transylvania  as  lay  within  the  char- 
tered limits  of  Virginia  was  erected  by  the 
legislature  of  that  colony  into  the  County  of 
Kentucky.  The  proprietary  form  of  govern- 
ment with  its  "marks  of  vassalage,"  although 
liberalized  with  the  spirit  of  democracy,  was 
unendurable  to  the  independent  and  lawless 

258 


THE  REPULSE  OF  THE  RED  MEN 

pioneers,  already  intoxicated  with  the  spirit 
of  freedom  swept  in  on  the  first  fresh  breezes 
of  the  Revolution.  Yet  it  is  not  to  be  doubted 
that  the  Transylvania  Company,  through  the 
courage  and  moral  influence  of  its  leaders, 
made  a  permanent  contribution  to  the  colo- 
nization of  the  West,  which,  in  providential 
timeliness  and  effective  execution,  is  without 
parallel  in  our  early  annals.^^^ 

While  events  were  thus  shaping  themselves 
in  Kentucky — events  which  made  possible 
Clark's  spectacular  and  meteoric  campaign  in 
the  Northwest  and  ultimately  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Mississippi  instead  of  the 
Alleghanies  as  the  western  boundary  of  the 
Confederation — the  pioneers  of  Watauga  were 
sagaciously  laying  strong  the  foundations  of 
permanent  occupation.  In  September,  1775, 
North  Carolina,  through  her  Provincial  Con- 
gress, provided  for  the  appointment  in  each 
district  of  a  Committee  of  Safety,  to  consist 
of  a  president  and  twelve  other  members. 
Following  the  lead  thus  set,  the  Watauga  set- 
tlers assumed  for  their  country  the  name  of 

259 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

"Washington  District" ;  and  proceeded  by  un- 
animous vote  of  the  people  to  choose  a  com- 
mittee of  thirteen,  which  included  James  Rob- 
ertson and  John  Sevier.  This  district  was  or- 
ganized "shortly  after  October,  1775,"  accord- 
ing to  Felix  AValker;  and  the  first  step  taken 
after  the  election  of  the  committee  was  the 
organization  of  a  court,  consisting  of  five  mem- 
bers. Felix  Walker  was  elected  clerk  of  the 
court  thus  organized,  and  held  the  position  for 
about  four  years.  James  Robertson  and  John 
Sevier,  it  is  believed,  were  also  members  of  this 
court.  To  James  Robertson  who,  with  the 
assistance  of  his  colleagues,  devised  this  primi- 
tive type  of  frontier  rule — a  true  commission 
form  of  government,  on  the  "Watauga  Plan" 
— is  justly  due  distinctive  recognition  for  this 
notable  inauguration  of  the  independent  de- 
mocracy of  the  Old  Southwest.  The  Wa- 
tauga settlement  was  animated  by  a  spirit 
of  deepest  loyalty  to  the  American  cause.  In 
a  memorable  petition  these  hardy  settlers  re- 
quested the  Provincial  Council  of  North  Caro- 
lina not  to  regard  them  as  a  "lawless  mob," 

260 


THE  REPULSE  OF  THE  RED  MEN 

but  to  "annex"  them  to  North  Carolina  with- 
out delay.  "This  committee  (willing  to  be- 
come a  party  in  the  present  unhappy  contest) ", 
states  the  petition,  which  must  have  been 
drafted  about  July  15,  1776,  "resolved  (which 
is  now  on  our  records) ,  to  adhere  strictly  to  the 
rules  and  orders  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
and  in  open  committee  acknowledged  them- 
selves indebted  to  the  united  colonies  their  full 
proportion  of  the  Continental  expense."  ^^^ 

While  these  disputes  as  to  the  government 
of  the  new  communities  were  in  progress  an 
additional  danger  threatened  the  pioneers. 
For  a  whole  year  the  British  had  been  plying 
the  various  Indian  tribes  from  the  lakes  to 
the  gulf  with  presents,  supplies,  and  ammuni- 
tion. In  the  Northwest  bounties  had  actually 
been  offered  for  American  scalps.  During 
the  spring  of  1776  plans  were  concerted,  chiefly 
through  Stuart  and  Cameron,  British  agents 
among  the  Southern  Indians,  for  uniting  the 
Loyalists  and  the  Indians  in  a  crushing  attack 
upon  the  Tennessee  settlements  and  the  back 
country    of    North    Carolina.     Already    the 

261 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

frontier  of  South  Carolina  had  passed  through 
the  horrors  of  Indian  uprising;  and  warning 
of  the  approaching  invasion  had  been  merci- 
fully sent  the  Holstdn  settlers  by  Atta-kulla- 
kulla's  niece,  Nancy  Ward,  the  "Pocahontas  of 
the  West" — doubtless  through  the  influence  of 
her  daughter,  who  loved  Joseph  Martin.  The 
settlers,  flocking  for  refuge  into  their  small 
stockaded  forts,  waited  in  readiness  for  the 
dreaded  Indian  attacks,  which  were  made  by 
two  forces  totaling  some  seven  hundred  war- 
riors. 

On  July  20th,  warned  in  advance  of  the  ap- 
proach of  the  Indians,  the  borderers,  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  in  all,  marched  in  two  col- 
umns from  the  rude  breastwork,  hastily  thrown 
up  at  Eaton's  Station,  to  meet  the  Indians, 
double  their  own  number,  led  by  The  Drag- 
ging Canoe.  The  scouts  surprised  one  party 
of  Indians,  hastily  poured  in  a  deadly  fire, 
and  rushed  upon  them  with  such  impetuous 
•fury  that  they  fled  precipitately.  Withdi'aw- 
ing  now  toward  their  breastwork,  in  anticipa- 
tion of  encountering  there  a  larger  force,  the 

262 


THE  REPULSE  OF  THE  RED  MEN 

backwoodsmen  suddenly  found  themselves  at- 
tacked in  their  rear  and  in  grave  danger  of 
being  surrounded.  Extending  their  own  line 
under  the  direction  of  Captain  James  Shelby, 
the  frontiersmen  steadily  met  the  bold  attack 
of  the  Indians,  who,  mistaking  the  rapid  ex- 
tension of  the  line  for  a  movement  to  retreat, 
incautiously  made  a  headlong  onslaught  upon 
the  whites,  giving  the  war-whoop  and  shout- 
ing: "The  Unakas  are  running!"  In  the  en- 
suing hot  conflict  at  close  quarters,  in  some 
places  hand  to  hand,  the  Indians  were  utterly 
routed — The  Dragging  Canoe  being  shot 
down,  many  warriors  wounded,  and  thirteen 
left  dead  upon  the  field. 

On  the  day  after  Thompson,  Cocke,  Shelby, 
Campbell,  Madison,  and  their  men  were  thus 
winning  the  battle  of  the  Long  Island  "flats," 
Robertson,  Sevier,  and  their  little  band  of 
forty-two  men  were  engaged  in  repelling  an 
attack,  begun  at  sunrise,  upon  the  Watauga 
fort  near  the  Sycamore  Shoals.  This  attack, 
which  was  led  by  Old  Abraham,  proved  abor- 
tive; but  as  the  result  of  the  loose  investment 

263 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

of  the  log  fortress,  maintained  by  the  Indians 
for  several  weeks,  a  few  rash  venturers  from 
the  fort  were  killed  or  captured,  notably  a 
young  boy  who  was  carried  to  one  of  the  Indian 
towns  and  burned  at  the  stake,  and  the  wife 
of  the  pioneer  settler,  William  Been,  who 
was  rescued  from  a  like  fate  by  the  interces- 
sion of  the  humane  and  noble  Nancy  Ward. 
It  was  during  this  siege,  according  to  con- 
stant tradition,  that  a  frontier  lass,  active  and 
graceful  as  a  young  doe,  was  pursued  to  the 
very  stockade  by  the  fleet-footed  savages. 
Seeing  her  plight,  an  athletic  young  officer 
mounted  the  stockade  at  a  single  leap,  shot 
down  the  foremost  of  the  pursuers,  and  lean- 
ing over,  seized  the  maiden  by  the  hands  and 
lifted  her  over  the  stockade.  The  maiden  who 
sank  breathless  into  the  arms  of  the  young 
officer,  John  Sevier,  was  "Bonnie  Kate  Sher- 
rill" — who,  after  the  fashion  of  true  romance, 
afterward  became  the  wife  of  her  gallant  res- 
cuer. 

While  the  Tennessee  settlements  were  un- 
dergoing the  trials  of  siege  and  attack,  the 

£64 


THE  REPULSE  OF  THE  RED  MEN 

settlers  on  the  frontiers  of  Rowan  were  fall- 
ing beneath  the  tomahawk  of  the  merciless 
savage.  In  the  first  and  second  weeks  of  July 
large  forces  of  Indians  penetrated  to  the  out- 
lying settlements ;  and  in  two  days  thirty-seven 
persons  were  killed  along  the  Catawba  River. 
On  July  13th,  the  bluff  old  soldier  of  Rowan, 
General  Griffith  Rutherford,  reported  to  the 
council  of  North  Carolina  that  "three  of  our 
Captains  are  killed  and  one  wounded";  and 
that  he  was  setting  out  that  day  with  what 
men  he  could  muster  to  relieve  Colonel  Mc- 
Dowell, ten  men,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty 
women  and  children,  who  were  "besieged  in 
some  kind  of  a  fort."  Aroused  to  extraordi- 
nary exertions  by  these  daring  and  deadly 
blows,  the  governments  of  North  Carolina, 
South  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  Georgia  insti- 
tuted a  joint  campaign  against  the  Cherokees. 
It  was  believed  that,  by  delivering  a  series  of 
crushing  blows  to  the  Indians  and  so  conclu- 
sively demonstrating  the  overwhelming  supe- 
riority of  the  whites,  the  state  governments 
in  the  Old  Southwest  would  convince  the  sav- 

265 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

ages  of  the  futility  of  any  attempt  ever  again 
to  oppose  them  seriously. 

Within  less  than  a  week  after  sending  his 
despatches  to  the  council  Rutherford  set  forth 
at  the  head  of  twenty-five  hundred  men  to 
protect  the  frontiers  of  North  Carolina  and  to 
overwhelm  the  foe.  Leading  the  South  Caro- 
lina army  of  more  than  eighteen  hundred  men, 
Colonel  Andrew  Williamson  directed  his  at- 
tack against  the  lower  Cherokee  towns;  while 
Colonel  Samuel  Jack  led  two  hundred  Georg- 
ians against  the  Indian  towns  at  the  heads  of 
the  Chattahoochee  and  Tugaloo  Rivers.  As- 
sembling a  force  of  some  sixteen  hundred  Vir- 
ginians, Colonel  William  Christian  rendez- 
voused in  August  at  the  Long  Island  of 
Holston,  where  his  force  was  strengthened  by 
between  three  and  four  hundred  North  Caro- 
linians under  Colonels  Joseph  Williams  and 
Love,  and  Major  Winston.  The  various  ex- 
peditions met  with  little  effective  opposition 
on  the  whole,  succeeding  everywhere  in  their 
design  of  utterly  laying  waste  the  towns  of 
the  Cherokees.     One  serious  engagement  oc- 

266 


THE  REPULSE  OF  THE  RED  MEN 

curred  when  the  Indians  resolutely  challenged 
Rutherford's  advance  at  the  gap  of  the  Nan- 
tahala  Mountains.  Indian  women — heroic 
Amazons  disguised  in  war-paint  and  armed 
with  the  weapons  of  warriors  and  the  cour- 
age of  despair — fought  side  by  side  with  the 
Indian  braves  in  the  effort  to  arrest  Ruther- 
ford's progress  and  compass  his  defeat.  More 
than  forty  frontiersmen  fell  beneath  the  deadly 
shots  of  this  truly  Spartan  band  before  the 
final  repulse  of  the  savages. 

The  most  picturesque  figures  in  this  over- 
whelmingly successful  campaign  were  the  bluff 
old  Indian-fighter,  Griffith  Rutherford,  wear- 
ing "a  tow  hunting  shirt,  dyed  black,  and 
trimmed  with  white  fringe"  as  a  uniform ;  Cap- 
tain Benjamin  Cleveland,  a  rude  paladin  of 
gigantic  size,  strength,  and  courage;  Lieuten- 
ant William  Lenoir  (Le  Noir),  the  gallant 
and  recklessly  brave  French  Huguenot,  later 
to  win  a  general's  rank  in  the  Revolution; 
and  that  militant  man  of  God,  the  Reverend 
James  Hall,  graduate  of  Nassau  Hall,  stal- 
wart and  manly,  who  carried  a  rifle  on  his 

267 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

shoulder  and,  in  the  intervals  between  the 
slaughter  of  the  savages,  preached  the  gospel 
to  the  vindictive  and  bloodthirsty  backwoods- 
men. Such  preaching  was  sorely  needed  on 
that  campaign — when  the  whites,  maddened 
beyond  the  bounds  of  self-control  by  the  re- 
cent ghastly  murders,  gladly  availed  them- 
selves of  the  South  Carolina  bounty  offered 
for  fresh  Indian  scalps.  At  times  they  ex- 
ultantly displayed  the  reeking  patches  of  hair 
above  the  gates  of  their  stockades;  at  others, 
with  many  a  bloody  oath,  they  compelled  their 
commanders  either  to  sell  the  Indian  captives 
into  slavery  or  else  see  them  scalped  on  the 
spot.  Twenty  years  afterward  Benjamin 
Hawkins  relates  that  among  Indian  refugees 
in  extreme  western  Georgia  the  children  had 
been  so  terrorized  by  their  parents'  recitals  of 
the  atrocities  of  the  enraged  borderers  in  the 
campaign  of  1776,  that  they  ran  screaming 
from  the  face  of  a  white  man. 


268 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE   COLONIZATION   OF   THE   CUMBERLAND 

March  31,  1780.  Set  out  this  day,  and  after  running  some 
distance,  met  with  Col.  Richard  Henderson,  who  was  running 
the  line  between  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  At  this  meet- 
ing we  were  much  rejoiced.  He  gave  us  every  information 
we  wished,  and  further  informed  us  that  he  had  purchased 
a  quantity  of  com  in  Kentucky,  to  be  shipped  at  the  Falls 
of  Ohio,  for  the  use  of  the  Cumberland  settlement.  We  are 
now  without  bread,  and  are  compelled  to  hunt  the  buffalo 
to  preserve  life. 

— John  Dokelson:  Journal  of  a  Voyage,  in- 
tended by  God's  permission,  in  the  good  boat 
Adventure,  from  Fort  Patrick  Henry,  on  Hol~ 
ston  River,  to  the  French  Salt  Springs  on 
Cwnberland  Biver. 

TO  the  settlements  in  Tennessee  and  Ken- 
tucky, which  they  had  seized  and  occu- 
pied, the  pioneers  held  on  with  a  tenacious 
grip  which  never  relaxed.  From  these  strong- 
holds, won  through  sullen  and  desperate 
strokes,  they  pushed  deeper  into  the  wilder- 
ness, once  again  to  meet  with  undimmed  cour- 
age the  bitter  onslaughts  of  their  resentful  foes. 

269 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

The  crushing  of  the  Cherokees  in  1776  relieved 
the  pressure  upon  the  Tennessee  settlers,  en- 
abling them  to  strengthen  their  hold  and  pre- 
pare effectively  for  future  eventualities;  the 
possession  of  the  gateway  to  Kentucky  kept 
free  the  passage  for  Western  settlement; 
Watauga  and  its  defenders  continued  to  offer 
a  formidable  barrier  to  British  invasion  of  the 
East  from  Kentucky  and  the  Northwest  dur- 
ing the  Revolution;  while  these  Tennessee 
frontiersmen  were  destined  soon  to  set  forth 
again  to  invade  a  new  wilderness  and  at  fright- 
ful cost  to  colonize  the  Cumberland. 

The  little  chain  of  stockades  along  the  far- 
flung  frontier  of  Kentucky  was  tenaciously 
held  by  the  bravest  of  the  race,  grimly  re- 
solved that  this  chain  must  not  break.  The 
Revolution  precipitated  against  this  chain 
wave  after  wave  of  formidable  Indian  foes 
from  the  Northwest  under  British  leadership. 
At  the  very  time  when  Griffith  Rutherford  set 
out  for  the  relief  of  McDowell's  Fort,  a 
marauding  Indian  band  captured  by  stealth 
near  the  Transylvania  Fort,  known  as  Boone's 

^0 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  CUMBERLAND 

Fort  (Boonesborough),  Elizabeth  and  Fran- 
ces Callaway,  and  Jemima  Boone,  the  daugh- 
ters of  Richard  Callaway  and  Daniel  Boone, 
and  rapidly  marched  them  awaj'^  toward  the 
Shawanoe  towns  on  the  Ohio.  A  relief  party, 
in  two  divisions,  headed  respectively  by  the 
young  girls'  fathers,  and  composed  among 
others  of  the  lovers  of  the  three  girls,  Sam- 
uel Henderson,  John  Holder,  and  Flanders 
Callaway,  pursued  them  with  almost  incredi- 
ble swiftness.  Guided  by  broken  twigs  and 
bits  of  cloth  surreptitiously  dropped  by  Eliza- 
beth Callaway,  they  finally  overtook  the  un- 
suspecting savages,  killed  two  of  them,  and 
rescued  the  three  maidens  unharmed.  This 
romantic  episode — which  gave  Fenimore 
Cooper  the  theme  for  the  most  memorable 
scene  in  one  of  his  Leatherstocking  Tales — 
had  an  even  more  romantic  sequel  in  the  sub- 
sequent marriage  of  the  three  pairs  of  lovers. 

This  bold  foray,  so  shrewdly  executed  and 
even  more  sagaciously  foiled,  was  a  true  pre- 
cursor of  the  dread  happenings  of  the  coming 
years.     Soon  the  red  men  were  lurking  in  the 

271 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

neighborhood  of  the  stations;  and  relief  was 
felt  when  the  Transylvania  Fort,  the  great 
stockade  planned  by  Judge  Henderson,  was 
completed  by  the  pioneers  (July,  1776). 
Glad  tidings  arrived  only  a  few  days  later 
when  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  read 
aloud  from  the  Virginia  Gazette,  was  greeted 
with  wild  huzzas  by  the  patriotic  backwoods- 
men. During  the  ensuing  months  occasional 
invasions  were  made  by  savage  bands;  but  it 
was  not  until  April  24,  1777,  that  Hender- 
son's "big  fort"  received  its  first  attack,  being 
invested  by  a  company  of  some  seventy-five 
savages.  The  twenty-two  riflemen  in  the  fort 
drove  oif  the  painted  warriors,  but  not  before 
Michael  S toner,  Daniel  Boone,  and  several 
others  were  severely  wounded.  As  he  lay 
helpless  upon  the  ground,  his  ankle  shattered 
by  a  bullet,  Boone  was  lifted  by  Simon  Ken- 
ton and  borne  away  upon  his  shoulders  to  the 
haven  of  the  stockade  amid  a  veritable  shower 
of  balls.  The  stoical  and  taciturn  Boone 
clasped  Kenton's  hand  and  gave  him  the  ac- 
colade of  the  wilderness  in  the  brief  but  heart- 

272 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  CUMBERLAND 

felt  utterance;  "You  are  a  fine  fellow."  On 
July  4tli  of  this  same  year  the  fort  was  again 
subjected  to  siege,  when  two  hundred  gaudily 
painted  savages  surrounded  it  for  two  days. 
But  owing  to  the  vigilance  and  superb  mark- 
manship  of  the  defenders,  as  well  as  to  the  lack 
of  cannon  by  the  besieging  force,  the  Indians 
reluctantly  abandoned  the  siege,  after  leaving 
a  number  dead  upon  the  field.  Soon  after- 
ward the  arrival  of  two  strong  bodies  of  prime 
riflemen,  who  had  been  hastily  summoned  from 
the  frontiers  of  North  Carolina  and  Virginia, 
once  again  made  finii  the  bulwark  of  white 
supremacy  in  the  West. 

Kentucky's  terrible  year,  1778,  opened  with 
a  severe  disaster  to  the  white  settlers — when 
Boone  with  thirty  men,  while  engaged  in  mak- 
ing salt  at  the  "Lower  Salt  Spring,"  was  cap- 
tured in  February  by  more  than  a  hundred 
Indians,  sent  by  Governor  Hamilton  of  De- 
troit to  drive  the  white  settlers  from  "Ken- 
tucke."  Boone  remained  in  captivity  until 
ear'ly  summer,  when,  learning  that  his  Indian 
captors  were  planning  an  attack  in  force  upon 

£73 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

the  Transylvania  Fort,  he  succeeded  in  effect- 
ing his  escape.  After  a  break-neck  journey 
of  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  during  which 
he  ate  but  one  meal,  Boone  finally  arrived  at 
the  big  fort  on  June  20th.  The  settlers  were 
thus  given  ample  time  for  preparation,  as  the 
long  siege  did  not  begin  until  September  7th. 
The  fort  was  invested  by  a  powerful  force 
flying  the  English  flag — four  hundred  and 
forty-four  savages  gaudy  in  the  vermilion  and 
ochre  of  their  war-paint,  and  eleven  French- 
men, the  v/hole  being  commanded  by  the 
French-Canadian,  Captain  Dagniaux  de  Quin- 
dre,  and  the  gi'cat  Indian  Chief,  Black-fish, 
who  had  adopted  Boone  as  a  son.^^^  In  the 
effort  to  gain  his  end  de  Quindre  resorted  to 
a  dishonorable  stratagem,  by  which  he  hoped 
to  outwit  the  settlers  and  capture  the  fort  with 
but  slight  loss.  "They  formed  a  scheme  to 
deceive  us,"  says  Boone,  "declaring  it  was  their 
orders,  from  Governor  Hamilton,  to  take  us 
captives,  and  not  to  destroy  us;  but  if  nine 
of  us  would  come  out  and  treat  with  them,  they 
would  immediately  withdraw  their  forces  from 

274 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  CUMBERLAND 

our  walls,  and  return  home  peacably."  Trans- 
parent as  the  stratagem  was,  Boone  incau- 
tiously agreed  to  a  conference  with  the  enemy ; 
Callaway  alone  took  the  precaution  to  guard 
against  Indian  duplicity.  After  a  long  talk, 
the  Indians  proposed  to  Boone,  Callaway,  and 
the  seven  or  eight  pioneers  who  accompanied 
them  that  they  shake  hands  in  token  of  peace 
and  friendship.  As  picturesquely  described 
by  Daniel  Trabue : 

The  Indians  sayed  two  Indians  must  shake 
hands  with  one  white  man  to  make  a  Double 
or  sure  peace  at  this  time  the  Indians  had 
hold  of  the  white  men's  hands  and  held  them. 
Col.  Calloway  objected  to  this  but  the  other 
Indians  laid  hold  or  tryed  to  lay  hold  of  the 
other  hand  but  Colonel  Calloway  was  the  first 
that  jerked  away  from  them  but  the  Indians 
seized  the  men  two  Indians  holt  of  one  man  or 
it  was  mostly  the  case  and  did  their  best  to 
hold  them  but  while  the  man  and  Indians  was 
a  scuffling  the  men  from  the  Fort  agreeable 
to  Col.  Calloway's  order  fired  on  them  they 
had  a  dreadful  skuffel  but  our  men  all  got  in 
the  fort  safe  and  the  fire  continued  on  both 
sides.^^^ 

275 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

During  the  siege  Callaway,  the  leader  of  the 
pioneers,  made  a  wooden  cannon  wrapped  with 
wagon  tires,  which  on  being  fired  at  a  group 
of  Indians  "made  them  scamper  perdidiously." 
The  secret  effort  of  the  Indians  to  tunnel  a 
way  underground  into  the  fort,  being  discov- 
ered by  the  defenders,  was  frustrated  by  a 
countermine.  Unable  to  outwit,  outfight,  or 
outmaneuver  the  resourceful  Callaway,  de 
Quindre  finally  withdrew  on  September  16th, 
closing  the  longest  and  severest  attack  that  any 
of  the  fortified  stations  of  Kentucky  had  ever 
been  called  upon  to  withstand. 

The  successful  defense  of  the  Transylvania 
Fort,  made  by  these  indomitable  backwoods- 
men who  were  lost  sight  of  by  the  Continental 
Congress  and  left  to  fight  alone  their  battles 
in  the  forests,  was  of  national  significance  in 
its  results.  Had  the  Transylvania  Fort  fallen, 
the  northern  Indians  in  overwhelming  num- 
bers, directed  by  Hamilton  and  led  by  British 
officers,  might  well  have  swept  Kentucky  free 
of  defenders  and  fallen  with  devastating  force 
upon  the  exposed  settlements  along  tlie  west- 

276 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  CUMBERLAND 

em  frontiers  of  North  Carolina,  Virginia,  and 
Pennsylvania.  This  defense  of  Boonesbor- 
ough,  therefore,  is  deserving  of  commemora- 
tion in  the  annals  of  the  Revolution,  along  with 
Lexington  and  Bunker's  Hill.  Coupled  with 
Clark's  meteoric  campaign  in  the  Northwest 
and  the  subsequent  struggles  in  the  defense 
of  Kentucky,  it  may  be  regarded  as  an 
event  basically  responsible  for  the  retention  of 
the  trans-Alleghany  region  by  the  United 
States.  The  bitter  struggles,  desperate  sieges, 
and  bloody  reprisals  of  these  dark  years  came 
to  a  close  with  the  expeditions  of  Clark  and 
Logan  in  November,  1782,  which  appro- 
priately concluded  the  Revolution  in  the  West 
by  putting  a  definite  end  to  all  prospect  of 
formidable  invasion  of  Kentucky. 

In  November,  1777,  "Washington  District," 
the  delegates  of  which  had  been  received  in  the 
preceding  year  by  the  Provincial  Congress  of 
North  Carolina,  was  formed  by  the  North 
Carolina  General  Assembly  into  Washington 
County ;  and  to  it  were  assigned  the  boundaries 
of  the  whole  of  the  present  state  of  Tennessee. 

277 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

^Vllile  this  immense  territory  was  thus  being 
definitely  included  within  the  bounds  of  North 
Carolina,  Judge  Henderson  on  behalf  of  the 
Transylvania  Company  was  making  a  vigorous 
effort  to  secure  the  reestablishment  of  its  rights 
from  the  Virginia  Assembly.  By  order  of  the 
Virginia  legislature,  an  exhaustive  investiga- 
tion of  the  claims  of  the  Transylvania  Com- 
pany was  therefore  made,  hearings  being  held 
at  various  points  in  the  back  country.  On 
July  18,  1777,  Judge  Henderson  presented 
to  the  peace  commissioners  for  North  Carolina 
and  Virginia  at  the  Long  Island  treaty  ground 
an  elaborate  memorial  in  behalf  of  the  Tran- 
sylvania Company,  which  the  commissioners 
unanimously  refused  to  consider,  as  not  com- 
ing under  their  jurisdiction.^^*'  Finally,  after 
a  full  and  impartial  discussion  before  the  Vir- 
ginia House  of  Delegates,  that  body  declared 
the  Transylvania  purchase  void.^®*'  But  in 
consideration  of  "the  very  great  expense  [in- 
curred by  the  company]  in  making  the  said 
purchase,  and  in  settling  the  said  lands,  by 
which  the  commonwealth  is  likely  to  receive 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  CUMBERLAND 

great  advantage,  by  increasing  its  inhabitants, 
and  establishing  a  barrier  against  the  Indians," 
the  House  of  Delegates  granted  Richard  Hen- 
derson and  Company  two  hundred  thousand 
acres  of  land  situated  between  the  Ohio  and 
Green  rivers,  where  the  town  of  Henderson, 
Kentucky,  now  stands/^^  With  this  bursting 
of  the  Transylvania  bubble  and  the  vanishing 
of  the  golden  dreams  of  Henderson  and  his  as- 
sociates for  establishing  the  fourteenth  Ameri- 
can colony  in  the  heart  of  the  trans-Alleghany, 
a  first  romantic  chapter  in  the  history  of  West- 
ward expansion  comes  to  a  close.  v/ 

But  another  and  more  feasible  project  im- 
mediately succeeded.  Undiscouraged  by  Vir- 
ginia's confiscation  of  Transylvania,  and  dis- 
regarding North  Carolina's  action  in  extend- 
ing her  boundaries  over  the  trans-Alleghany 
region  lying  within  her  chartered  limits,  Hen- 
derson, in  whom  the  genius  of  the  colonizer 
and  the  ambition  of  the  speculative  capitalist 
were  found  in  striking  conjunction,  was  now 
inspired  to  repeat,  along  broader  and  more 
solidly  practical  lines,  the  revolutionary  ex- 

279         "~ 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

periment  of  Transylvania.  It  was  not  his 
purpose,  however,  to  found  an  independent 
colony;  for  he  believed  that  millions  of  acres 
in  the  Transylvania  purchase  lay  within  the 
bounds  of  North  Carolina,  and  he  wished  to 
open  for  colonization,  settlement,  and  the  sale 
of  lands,  the  vast  wilderness  of  the  valley  of 
the  Cumberland  supposed  to  lie  within  those 
confines.  But  so  universal  was  the  prevailing 
uncertainty  in  regard  to  boundaries  that  it  was 
necessary  to  prolong  the  North  Carolina-Vir* 
ginia  line  in  order  to  determine  whether  or  not 
the  Great  French  Lick,  the  ideal  location  for 
settlement,  lay  within  the  chartered  limits  of 
North  Carolina.^^^ 

Judge  Henderson's  comprehensive  plans 
for  the  promotion  of  an  extensive  colonization 
of  the  Cumberland  region  soon  began  to  take 
form  in  vigorous  action.  Just  as  in  his  Tran- 
sylvania project  Henderson  had  chosen  Dan- 
iel Boone,  the  ablest  of  the  North  Carolina 
pioneers,  to  spy  out  the  land  and  select  sites 
for  future  location,  so  now  he  chose  as  leader 
of  the  new  colonizing  party  the  ablest  of  the 

280 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  CUMBERLAND 

Tennessee  pioneers,  James  Robertson.  Al- 
though he  was  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the 
Watauga  settlement  and  held  the  responsible 
position  of  Indian  agent  for  North  Carolina, 
Robertson  was  induced  by  Henderson's  liberal 
offers  to  leave  his  comparatively  peaceful  home 
and  to  venture  his  life  in  this  desperate  hazard 
of  new  fortunes.  The  advance  party  of  eight 
white  men  and  one  negro,  under  Robertson's 
leadership,  set  forth  from  the  Holston  settle- 
ment on  February  6,  1779,  to  make  a  prelim- 
inary exploration  and  to  plant  corn  "that 
bread  might  be  prepared  for  the  main  body 
of  emigrants  in  the  fall."  After  erecting  a 
few  cabins  for  dwellings  and  posts  of  defense, 
Robertson  plunged  alone  into  the  wilderness 
and  made  the  long  journey  to  Post  St.  Vin- 
cent in  the  Illinois,  in  order  to  consult  with 
George  Rogers  Clark,  who  had  entered  for 
himself  in  the  Virginia  Land  Office  several 
thousand  acres  of  land  at  the  French  Lick. 
After  perfecting  arrangements  with  Clark  for 
securing  "cabin  rights"  should  the  land  prove 
to  lie  in  Virginia,  Robertson  returned  to  Wa- 

281 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

tauga    to    take    command    of    the    migration. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  year  two  parties  set 
out,  one  by  land,  the  other  by  water,  for  the 
wonderful  new  country  on  the  Cumberland 
of  which  Boone  and  Scaggs  and  Mansker  had 
brought  back  such  glowing  descriptions.  Dur- 
ing the  autumn  Judge  Henderson  and  other 
commissioners  from  North  Carolina,  in  con- 
junction with  commissioners  from  Virginia, 
had  been  running  out  the  boundary  line  be- 
tween the  two  states.  On  the  very  day — 
Christmas,  1779 — that  Judge  Henderson 
reached  the  site  of  the  Transylvania  Fort,  now 
called  Boonesborough,  the  swarm  of  colonists 
from  the  parent  hive  at  Watauga,  under  Rob- 
ertson's leadership,  reached  the  French  Lick; 
and  on  New  Year's  Day,  1780,  crossed  the 
river  on  the  ice  to  the  present  site  of  Nashville. 

The  journal  of  the  other  party,  which,  as 
has  been  aptly  said,  reads  like  a  chapter  from 
one  of  Captain  Mayne  Reid's  fascinating 
novels  of  adventure,  was  written  by  Colonel 
John  Donelson,  the  father-in-law  of  Andrew 
Jackson.     Setting    out    from    Fort    Patrick 

^82 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  CUMBERLAND 

Henry  on  Holston  River,  December  22,  1779, 
with  a  flotilla  consisting  of  about  thirty  flat- 
boats,  dugouts,  and  canoes,  they  encountered 
few  difficulties  until  they  began  to  run  the 
gauntlet  of  the  Chickamauga  towns  on  the 
Tennessee.  Here  they  were  furiously  at- 
tacked by  the  Indians,  terrible  in  their  red  and 
black  war-paint;  and  a  well-filled  boat  lagging 
in  the  rear,  with  smallpox  on  board,  was  driven 
to  shore  by  the  Indians.  The  occupants  were 
massacred ;  but  the  Indians  at  once  contracted 
the  disease  and  died  by  the  hundreds.  This 
luckless  sacrifice  of  "poor  Stuart,  his  family 
and  friends,"  while  a  ghastly  price  to  pay,  un- 
doubtedly procured  for  the  Cumberland  settle- 
ments comparative  immunity  from  Indian 
forays  until  the  new-comers  had  firmly  estab- 
lished themselves  in  their  wilderness  strong- 
hold. Eloquent  of  the  granite  endurance  and 
courageous  spirit  of  the  typical  American  pio- 
neer in  its  thankfulness  for  sanctuary,  for  re- 
union of  families  and  friends,  and  for  the  hum- 
ble shelter  of  a  log  cabin,  is  the  last  entry  in 
Donelson's  diary  (April  24,  1780)  : 

283 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

This  day  we  arrived  at  our  journey's  end 
at  the  Big  Salt  Lick,  where  we  have  the  pleas- 
ure of  finding  Capt.  Robertson  and  his  com- 
pany. It  is  a  source  of  satisfaction  to  us  to 
be  enabled  to  restore  to  him  and  others  their 
families  and  friends,  who  were  intrusted  to 
our  care,  and  who,  some  time  since,  perhaps, 
despaired  of  ever  meeting  again.  Though 
our  prospects  at  present  are  dreary,  we  have 
found  a  few  log  cabins  which  have  been  built 
on  a  cedar  bluff  above  the  Lick  by  Capt.  Rob- 
ertson and  his  company. ^^^ 

In  the  midst  of  the  famine  during  this  terri- 
ble period  of  the  "hard  winter,"  Judge  Hen- 
derson was  sorely  concerned  for  the  fate  of  the 
new  colony  which  he  had  projected,  and  imme- 
diately proceeded  to  purchase  at  huge  cost  a 
large  stock  of  corn.  On  March  5,  1780,  this 
corn,  which  had  been  raised  by  Captain  Na- 
thaniel Hart,  was  "sent  from  Boonesborough 
in  perogues  [pettiaugers  or  flatboats]  under 
the  command  of  William  Bailey  Smith.  .  .  . 
This  corn  was  taken  down  the  Kentucky  River, 
and  over  the  Falls  of  Ohio,  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Cumberland,  and  thence  up  that  river  to 

S84  / 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  CUMBERLAND 

the  fort  at  the  French  Lick.  It  is  believed 
to  have  been  the  only  bread  which  the  settlers 
had  until  it  was  raised  there  in  1781."  ^^* 
There  is  genuine  impressiveness  in  this  heroic 
triumphing  over  the  obstacles  of  obdurate  na- 
ture and  this  paternalistic  provision  for  the 
exposed  Cumberland  settlement — the  pur- 
chase by  Judge  Henderson,  the  shipment  by 
Captain  Hart,  and  the  transportation  by 
Colonel  Smith,  in  an  awful  winter  of  bitter 
cold  and  obstructed  navigation,  of  this  indis- 
pensable quantity  of  corn  purchased  for  sixty 
thousand  dollars  in  depreciated  currency. 

Upon  his  arrival  at  the  French  Lick,  shortly 
after  the  middle  of  April,  Judge  Henderson 
at  once  proceeded  to  organize  a  government 
for  the  little  community.  On  May  1st  arti- 
cles of  association  were  drawn  up;  and  im- 
portant additions  thereto  were  made  on  May 
13th,  when  the  settlers  signed  the  complete 
series.  The  original  document,  still  preserved, 
was  drafted  by  Judge  Henderson,  being  writ- 
ten throughout  in  his  own  handwriting;  and 
his  name  heads  the  list  of  two  hundred  and 

285 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

fifty  and  more  signatures/ ^^  The  "Cumber- 
land Compact,"  as  this  paper  is  called,  is  fun- 
damentally a  mutual  contract  between  the  co- 
partners of  the  Transylvania  Company  and 
the  settlers  upon  the  lands  claimed  by  the  com- 
pany. It  represents  the  collective  will  of  the 
community ;  and  on  account  of  the  careful  pro- 
visions safeguarding  the  rights  of  each  party 
to  the  contract  it  may  be  called  a  bill  of  rights. 
The  organization  of  this  pure  democracy  was 
sound  and  admirable — another  notable  early 
example  of  the  commission  form  of  govern- 
ment. The  most  remarkable  feature  of  this 
backwoods  constitution  marks  Judge  Hender- 
son as  a  pioneer  in  the  use  of  the  political  de- 
vice so  prominent  to-day,  one  hundred  and 
forty  years  later — the  "recall  of  judges."  In 
the  following  striking  clause  this  innovation 
in  government  was  recognized  thus  early  in 
American  history  as  the  most  effective  means 
of  securing  and  safeguarding  justice  in  a 
democracy : 

As  often  as  the  people  in  general  are  dis- 
satisfied with  the  doings   of  the  Judges  or 

286 


THE  COLONIZATION  OF  CUMBERLAND 

Triers  so  to  be  chosen,  they  may  call  a  new 
election  in  any  of  the  said  stations,  and  elect 
others  in  their  stead,  having  due  respect  to 
the  number  now  agreed  to  be  elected  at  each 
station,  which  persons  so  to  be  chosen  shall 
have  the  same  power  with  those  in  whose  room 
or  place  they  shall  or  may  be  chosen  to  act. 

A  land-office  was  now  opened,  the  entry- 
taker  being  appointed  by  Judge  Henderson, 
in  accordance  with  the  compact ;  and  the  lands, 
for  costs  of  entry,  etc.,  were  registered  for  the 
nominal  fee  of  ten  dollars  per  thousand  acres. 
But  as  the  Transylvania  Company  was  never 
able  to  secure  a  "satisfactory  and  indisputable 
title,"  the  clause  resulted  in  perpetual  non- 
payment. In  1783,  following  the  lead  of  Vir- 
ginia in  the  case  of  Transjdvania,  North  Caro- 
lina declared  the  Transylvania  Company's 
purchase  void,  but  granted  the  company  in 
compensation  a  tract  of  one  hundred  and 
ninety  thousand  acres  in  Powell's  Valley.^®^ 
As  compensation,  the  grants  of  North  Caro- 
lina and  Virginia  were  quite  inadequate,  con- 
sidering the  value  of  the  service  in  behalf  of 

287 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

permanent  western  colonization  rendered  by 
the  Transylvania  company.^^^ 

James  Robertson  was  chosen  as  presiding 
officer  of  the  court  of  twelve  commissioners, 
and  was  also  elected  commander-in-chief  of 
the  military  forces  of  the  eight  little  associated 
settlements  on  the  Cumberland.  Here  for  the 
next  two  years  the  self-reliant  settlers  under 
Robertson's  wise  and  able  leadership  success- 
fully repelled  the  Indians  in  their  guerrilla 
warfare,  firmly  entrenched  themselves  in  their 
forest-girt  stronghold,  and  vindicated  their 
claim  to  the  territory  by  right  of  occupation 
and  conquest.  Here  sprang  up  in  later  times 
a  great  and  populous  city — named,  strangely 
enough,  neither  for  Henderson,  the  founder, 
nor  for  Robertson  and  Donelson,  the  leaders 
of  the  two  colonizing  parties,  but  for  one  hav- 
ing no  association  with  its  history  or  origins, 
the  gallant  North  Carolinian,  General  Francis 
Nash,  who  was  killed  at  the  Battle  of  German- 
town. 


^8 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

king's  mountain 

"With  the  utmost  satisfaction  I  can  acquaint  you  with  the 
sudden  and  favorable  turn  of  our  public  affairs.  A  few  days 
ago  destruction  hung  over  our  heads.  Cornwallis  with  at 
least  1500  British  and  Tories  waited  at  Charlotte  for  the 
reinforcement  of  1000  from  Broad  River,  which  reinforcement 
has  been  entirely  cut  off,  130  killed  and  the  remainder  cap- 
tured. Cornwallis  immediately  retreated,  and  is  now  on  his 
way  toward  Charleston,  with  part  of  our  army  in  his  rear.  .  .  . 
— Elizabeth  Maxwell  Steel:  Salisbury,  October 
25,  1780. 

SO  thoroughly  had  the  Cherokees  been  sub- 
dued by  the  devastations  of  the  campaign 
of  1776  that  for  several  years  thereafter,  they 
were  unable  to  organize  for  a  new  campaign 
against  the  backwoodsmen  along  the  frontiers 
of  North  Carolina  and  Tennessee.  During 
these  years  the  Holston  settlers  principally 
busied  themselves  in  making  their  position  se- 
cure, as  well  as  in  setting  their  house  in  order 
by  severely  punishing  the  lawless  Tory  element 
among   them.     In    1779    the    Chickamaugas, 

289 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

with  whom  The  Dragging  Canoe  and  his  ir- 
reconcilable followers  among  the  Cherokees 
had  joined  hands  after  the  campaign  of  1776, 
grew  so  bold  in  their  bloody  forays  upon  small 
exposed  settlements  that  North  Carolina  and 
Virginia  in  conjunction  despatched  a  strong 
expedition  against  them.  Embarking  on 
April  10th  at  the  mouth  of  Big  Creek  near 
the  present  Rogersville,  Tennessee,  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  men  led  by  Colonel  Evan  Shelby 
descended  the  Tennessee  to  the  fastnesses  of 
the  Chickamaugas.  Meeting  with  no  resist- 
ance from  the  astonished  Indians,  who  fled  to 
the  shelter  of  the  densely  wooded  hills,  they 
laid  waste  the  Indian  towns  and  destroyed  the 
immense  stores  of  goods  collected  by  the  Brit- 
ish agents  for  distribution  among  the  red  men. 
The  Chickamaugas  were  completely  quelled; 
and  during  the  period  of  great  stress  through 
which  the  Tennessee  frontiersmen  were  soon 
to  pass,  the  Cherokees  were  restrained  through 
the  wise  diplomacy  of  Joseph  Martin,  Super- 
intendent of  Indian  affairs  for  Virginia. 

The    great    British    offensive    against    the 
290 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 

Southern  colonies,  which  were  regarded  as  the 
vulnerable  point  in  the  American  Confederacy, 
was  fully  launched  upon  the  fall  of  Charleston 
in  May,  1780.  Cornwallis  established  his 
headquarters  at  Camden;  and  one  of  his  lieu- 
tenants, the  persuasive  and  brilliant  Fergu- 
son, soon  rallied  thousands  of  Loyalists  in 
South  Carolina  to  the  British  standard. 
When  Cornwallis  inaugurated  his  campaign 
for  cutting  Washington  wholly  off  from  the 
Southern  colonies  by  invading  North  Carolina, 
the  men  upon  the  western  waters  realized  that 
the  time  had  come  to  rise,  in  defense  of  their 
state  and  in  protection  of  their  homes.  Two 
hundred  Tennessee  riflemen  from  Sullivan 
County,  under  Colonel  Isaac  Shelby,  were  en- 
gaged in  minor  operations  in  South  Carolina 
conducted  by  Colonel  Charles  McDowell;  and 
conspicuous  among  these  engagements  was  the 
affair  at  Musgrove's  Mill  on  August  18th 
when  three  hundred  horsemen  led  by  Colonel 
James  Williams,  a  native  of  Granville  County, 
North  Carolina,  Colonel  Isaac  Shelby,  and 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Clark  of  Georgia  repulsed 

291 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

with  heavy  loss  a  British  force  of  between 
four  and  five  hundred. 

These  minor  successes  availed  nothing  in 
face  of  the  disastrous  defeat  of  Gates  by  Corn- 
wallis  at  Camden  on  August  16th  and  the 
humiliating  blow  to  Sumter  at  Rocky  Mount 
on  the  following  day.  Ferguson  hotly  pur- 
sued the  frontiersmen,  who  then  retreated  over 
the  mountains;  and  from  his  camp  at  Gilbert 
Town  he  despatched  a  threatening  message  to 
the  Western  leaders,  declaring  that  if  they  did 
not  desist  from  their  opposition  to  the  British 
arms  and  take  protection  under  his  standard, 
he  would  march  his  army  over  the  mountains 
and  lay  their  country  waste  with  fire  and 
sword.  Stung  to  action,  Shelby  hastily  rode 
off  to  consult  with  Sevier  at  his  log  castle  near 
Jonesboro;  and  together  they  matured  a  plan 
to  arouse  the  mountain  men  and  attack  Fergu- 
son by  surprise.  In  the  event  of  failure,  these 
wilderness  free-lances  planned  to  leave  the 
country  and  find  a  home  with  the  Spaniards 
in  Louisiana.^^^ 

At  the  original  place  of  rendezvous,  the 
292 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 

Sycamore  Shoals  of  the  Watauga,  the  over- 
mountain  men  gathered  on  September  25th. 
There  an  eloquent  sermon  was  preached  to 
them  by  that  fiery  man  of  God,  the  Reverend 
Samuel  Doak,  who  concluded  his  discourse 
with  a  stirring  invocation  to  the  sword  of  the 
Lord  and  of  Gideon — a  sentiment  greeted  with 
the  loud  applause  of  the  militant  frontiers- 
men. Here  and  at  various  places  along  the 
march  they  were  joined  by  detachments  of  bor- 
der fighters  summoned  to  join  the  expedition 
— Colonel  William  Campbell,  who  with  some 
reluctance  had  abandoned  his  own  plans  in  re- 
sponse to  Shelby's  urgent  and  repeated  mes- 
sage, in  command  of  four  hundred  hardy  fron- 
tiersmen from  Washington  County,  Virginia; 
Colonel  Benjamin  Cleveland,  with  the  wild 
fighters  of  Wilkes  known  as  "Cleveland's 
Bulldogs";  Colonel  Andrew  Hampton,  with 
the  stalwart  riflemen  of  Rutherford;  Major 
Joseph  Winston,  the  cousin  of  Patrick  Henry, 
with  the  flower  of  the  citizenry  of  Surry;  the 
McDowells,  Charles  and  Joseph,  with  the  bold 
borderers  of  Burke;  Colonels  Lacy  and  Hill, 

293 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

with  well-trained  soldiers  of  South  Carolina; 
and  Brigadier-General  James  Williams,  lead- 
ing the  intrepid  Rowan  volunteers. 

Before  breaking  camp  at  Quaker  Meadows, 
the  leading  officers  in  conference  chose  Colonel 
William  Campbell  as  temporary  officer  of  the 
day,  until  they  could  secure  a  general  officer 
from  headquarters  as  commander-in-chief. 
The  object  of  the  mountaineers  and  big-game 
hunters  was,  in  their  own  terms,  to  pursue  Fer- 
guson, to  run  him  down,  and  to  capture  him. 
In  pursuance  of  this  plan,  the  leaders  on  ar- 
riving at  the  ford  of  Green  River  chose  out 
a  force  of  six  hundred  men,  with  the  best 
mounts  and  equipment;  and  at  daybreak  on 
October  6th  this  force  of  picked  mounted  rifle- 
men, followed  by  some  fifty  "foot-cavalry" 
eager  to  join  in  the  pursuit,  pushed  rapidly  on 
to  the  Cowpens.  Here  a  second  selection  took 
place ;  and  Colonel  Campbell  was  again  elected 
commander  of  the  detachment,  now  number- 
ing some  nine  hundred  and  ten  horsemen  and 
eighty  odd  footmen,  which  dashed  rapidly  on 
in  pursuit  of  Ferguson. 

£94 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 

The  British  commander  had  been  apprised 
of  the  coming  of  the  over-mountain  men. 
Scorning  to  make  a  forced  march  and  attempt 
to  effect  a  junction  with  CornwalHs  at  Char- 
lotte, Ferguson  chose  to  make  a  stand  and  dis- 
pose once  for  all  of  the  barbarian  horde  whom 
he  denounced  as  mongrels  and  the  dregs  of 
mankind.  After  despatching  to  Cornwallis  a 
message  asking  for  aid,  Ferguson  took  up  his 
camp  on  King's  Mountain,  just  south  of  the 
North  Carolina  border  line,  in  the  present 
York  County,  South  Carolina.  Here,  after 
his  pickets  had  been  captured  in  silence,  he 
was  surprised  by  his  opponents.  At  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  October  7th  the 
mountain  hunters  treed  their  game  upon  the 
heights. 

The  battle  which  ensued  presents  an  extraor- 
dinary contrast  in  the  character  of  the  combat- 
ants and  the  nature  of  the  strategy  and 
tactics.^**^  Each  party  ran  true  to  form — Fer- 
guson repeating  Braddock's  suicidal  policy  of 
opposing  bayonet  charges  to  the  deadly  fusil- 
lade of  riflemen,  who  in  Indian  fashion  were 

295 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

carefully  posted  behind  trees  and  every  shelter 
afforded  by  the  natural  inequalities  of  the 
ground.  In  the  army  of  the  Carolina  and 
Virginia  frontiersmen,  composed  of  independ- 
ent detachments  recruited  from  many  sources 
and  solicitous  for  their  own  individual  credit, 
each  command  was  directed  in  the  battle  by 
its  own  leader.  Campbell — like  Cleveland, 
Winston,  Williams,  Lacey,  Shelby,  McDow- 
ell, Sevier,  and  Hambright — personally  led 
his  own  division;  but  the  nature  of  the  fight- 
ing and  the  peculiarity  of  the  terrain  made  it 
impossible  for  him,  though  the  chosen  com- 
mander of  the  expedition,  actually  to  play  that 
role  in  the  battle.  The  plan  agreed  upon  in 
advance  by  the  frontier  leaders  was  simple 
enough — to  surround  and  capture  Ferguson's 
camp  on  the  high  plateau.  The  more  experi- 
enced Indian  fighters,  Sevier  and  Shelby,  un- 
questionably suggested  the  general  scheme 
which  in  any  case  would  doubtless  have  been 
employed  by  the  frontiersmen;  it  was  to  give 
the  British  "Indian  play" — namely  to  take 
cover  everywhere  and  to  fire  from  natural  shel- 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 

ter.  Cleveland,  a  Hercules  in  strength  and 
courage  who  had  fought  the  Indians  and  recog- 
nized the  wisdom  of  Indian  tactics,  ordered 
his  men,  as  did  some  of  the  other  leaders,  to 
give  way  before  a  bayonet  charge,  but  to  re- 
turn to  the  attack  after  the  charge  had  spent 
its  force. 

"My  brave  fellows,"  said  Cleveland,  "every 
man  must  consider  himself  an  officer,  and  act 
from  his  own  judgment.  Fire  as  quick  as  you 
can,  and  stand  your  ground  as  long  as  you  can. 
When  you  can  do  no  better,  get  behind  trees, 
or  retreat ;  but  I  beg  you  not  to  run  quite  ofF. 
If  we  are  repulsed,  let  us  make  a  point  of  re- 
turning and  renewing  the  fight;  perhaps  we 
may  have  better  luck  in  the  second  attempt 
than  in  the  first." 

The  plateau  upon  which  Ferguson  was  en- 
camped was  the  top  of  an  eminence  some  six 
hundred  yards  long  and  about  two  hundred 
and  fifty  yards  from  one  base  across  to  the 
other;  and  its  shape  was  that  of  an  Indian 
paddle,  varying  from  one  hundred  and  twenty 
yards  at  the  blade  to  sixty  yards  at  the  handle 
in   width.     Outcropping   boulders   upon   the 

297 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

outer  edge  of  the  plateau  afforded  some  slight 
shelter  for  Ferguson's  force ;  but,  unsuspicious 
of  attack,  Ferguson  had  made  no  abatis  to 
protect  his  camp  from  the  assault  to  which  it 
was  so  vulnerable  because  of  the  protection 
of  the  timber  surrounding  it  on  all  sides.  As 
to  the  disposition  of  the  attacking  force,  the 
center  to  the  northeast  was  occupied  by  Cleve- 
land with  his  "Bulldogs,"  Hambright  with  his 
South  Fork  Boys  from  the  Catawba  (now 
Lincoln  County,  North  Carolina),  and  Win- 
ston with  his  Surry  riflemen ;  to  the  south  were 
the  divisions  of  Joseph  McDowell,  Sevier,  and 
Campbell;  while  Lacey's  South  Carolinians, 
the  Rowan  levies  under  Williams,  and  the 
Watauga  borderers  under  Shelby  were  sta- 
tioned upon  the  north  side.  Ferguson's  forces 
consisted  of  Provincial  Rangers,  one  hundred 
and  fifty  strong,  and  other  well-drilled  Loyal- 
ists, between  eight  and  nine  hundred  in  num- 
ber; but  his  strength  was  seriously  weakened 
by  the  absence  of  a  foraging  party  of  between 
one  and  two  hundred  who  had  gone  off  on  the 
morning  the  battle  occurred.     Shelby's  men, 

298 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 

before  getting  into  position,  received  a  hot  fire, 
the  opening  shots  of  the  engagement.  This 
inspired  Campbell,  who  now  threw  oif  his  coat,, 
to  shout  encouraging  orders  to  his  men  posted 
on  the  side  of  the  mountain  opposite  to  Shel- 
by's force.  When  Campbell's  Virginians  ut- 
tered a  series  of  piercing  shouts,  the  British 
officer,  De  Peyster,  second  in  command,  re- 
marked to  his  chief:  "These  things  are  omi- 
nous— these  are  the  damned  yelling  boys." 

The  battle,  which  lasted  some  minutes  short 
of  an  hour,  was  waged  with  terrific  ferocity. 
The  Loyalist  militia,  whenever  possible,  fired 
from  the  shelter  of  the  rocks;  while  the  Pro- 
vincial Corps,  with  fixed  bayonets,  steadily 
charged  the  frontiersmen,  who  fired  at  close 
range  and  then  rapidly  withdrew  to  the  very 
base  of  the  mountain.  After  each  bayonet 
charge  the  Provincials  coolly  withdrew  to  the 
summit,  under  the  accumulating  fire  of  the  re- 
turning mountaineers,  who  quickly  gathered  in 
their  rear.  Owing  to  their  elevated  location, 
the  British,  although  using  the  rapid-fire 
breech-loading    rifle    invented    by    Ferguson 

299 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

himself,  found  their  vision  deflected,  and  con- 
tinuall}?^  fired  high,  thus  suffering  from  na- 
ture's handicap,  refraction.^^®  The  mihtia,  us- 
ing sharpened  butcher-knives  which  Ferguson 
had  taught  them  to  utihze  as  bayonets,  charged 
against  the  mountaineers ;  but  their  fire,  in  an- 
swer to  the  deadly  fusillade  of  the  expert 
squirrel-shooters,  was  belated,  owing  to  the 
fact  that  they  could  not  fire  while  the  crudely 
improvised  bayonets  remained  inserted  in  their 
pieces.  The  Americans,  continually  firing  up- 
ward, found  ready  marks  for  their  aim  in  the 
clearly  delineated  outlines  of  their  adversaries, 
and  felt  the  fierce  exultation  which  animates 
the  hunter  who  has  tracked  to  its  lair  and  sur- 
rounded wild  game  at  bay. 

The  leaders  of  the  various  divisions  of  the 
mountaineers  bore  themselves  with  impetuous 
bravery,  recklessly  rushing  between  the  lines 
of  fire  and  with  native  eloquence,  interspersed 
with  profanity,  rallying  their  individual  com- 
mands again  and  again  to  the  attack.  The 
valiant  Campbell  scaled  the  rugged  heights, 
loudly   encouraging  his  men   to   the   ascent. 

300 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 

Cleveland,  resolutely  facing  the  foe,  urged  on 
his  Bulldogs  with  the  inspiriting  words: 
"Come,  boys;  let 's  try  'em  again.  We  '11  have 
better  luck  next  time."  No  sooner  did  Shel- 
by's men  reach  the  bottom  of  the  hill,  in  re- 
treating before  a  charge,  than  their  com- 
mander, fiery  and  strenuous,  ardently  shouted : 
"Now  boys,  quickly  reload  your  rifles,  and 
let 's  advance  upon  them,  and  give  them  an- 
other hell  of  a  fire."  The  most  deadly  charge, 
led  by  De  Peyster  himself,  fell  upon  Ham- 
bright's  South  Fork  boys;  and  one  of  their 
gallant  officers.  Major  Chronicle,  waving  his 
military  hat,  was  mortally  wounded,  the  com- 
mand, "Face  to  the  hill!",  dying  on  his  lips. 
These  veteran  soldiers,  unlike  the  mountain- 
eers, firmly  met  the  shock  of  the  charge,  and  a 
number  of  their  men  were  shot  down  or  trans- 
fixed; but  the  remainder,  reserving  their  fire 
until  the  charging  column  was  only  a  few  feet 
away,  poured  in  a  deadly  volley  before  retir- 
ing. The  gallant  William  Lenoir,  whose 
reckless  bravery  made  him  a  conspicuous  tar- 
get for  the  enemy,  received  several  wounds 

301 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

and  emerged  from  the  battle  with  his  hair  and 
clothes  torn  by  balls.  The  ranking  American 
officer,  Brigadier-General  James  Williams, 
was  mortally  womided  while  "on  the  very  top 
of  the  mountain,  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight"; 
and  as  he  momentarily  revived,  his  first  words 
were:  "For  God's  sake,  boys,  don't  give  up 
the  hill."  ""^  Hambright,  sorely  wounded,  his 
boot  overflowing  with  blood  and  his  hat  riddled 
with  three  bullet  holes,  declined  to  dismount, 
but  pressed  gallantly  forward,  exclaiming  in 
his  "Pennsylvania  Dutch":  "Huzza,  my 
prave  poys,  fight  on  a  few  minutes  more,  and 
the  pattle  will  be  over!"  On  the  British  side, 
Ferguson  was  supremely  valorous,  rapidly 
dashing  from  one  point  to  another,  rallying  his 
men,  oblivious  to  all  danger.  Wherever  the 
shrill  note  of  his  silver  whistle  sounded,  there 
the  fighting  was  hottest  and  the  British  resist- 
ance the  most  stubborn.  His  officers  fought 
with  the  characteristic  steadiness  of  the  British 
soldier;  and  again  and  again  his  men  charged 
headlong  against  the  wavering  and  fiery  circle 
of  the  frontiersmen.-"^ 

30S 


ISAAC  SHELBY 

From  a  painting  by  Matthew  Harris  Jouett  in  the  possession  of  William 
R.    Shelby,    Esq.,    Grand    Rapids,    Mich. 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 

Ferguson's  boast  that  "he  was  on  King's 
Mountain,  that  he  was  king  of  the  Mountain, 
and  God  Almighty  could  not  drive  him  from 
it"  was  doubtless  prompted,  less  by  a  belief 
in  the  impregnability  of  his  position,  than  by 
a  desperate  desire  to  inspire  confidence  in  his 
men.  His  location  was  admirably  chosen  for 
defense  against  attack  by  troops  employing 
regulation  tactics;  but,  never  dreaming  of  the 
possibility  of  sudden  investment,  Ferguson 
had  erected  no  fortifications  for  his  encamp- 
ment. His  frenzied  efforts  on  the  battle-field 
seem  like  a  mad  rush  against  fate ;  for  the  place 
was  indefensible  against  the  peculiar  tactics 
of  the  frontiersmen.  While  the  mountain 
flamed  like  a  volcano  and  resounded  with  the 
thunder  of  the  guns,  a  steady  stricture  was  in 
progress.  The  lines  were  drawn  tighter  and 
tighter  around  the  trapped  and  frantically 
struggling  army;  and  at  last  the  fall  of  their 
commander,  riddled  with  bullets,  proved  the 
tragic  futility  of  further  resistance.  The 
game  was  caught  and  bagged  to  a  man. 
When  Winston,  with  his  fox-hunters  of  Surry, 

303 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 

dashed  recklessly  through  the  woods,  says  a 
chronicler  of  the  battle,  and  the  last  to  come 
into  position, 

Flow'd  in,  and  settling,  circled  all  the  lists, 

then 

From  all  tlie  circle  of  the  hills 
death  sleeted  in  upon  the  doomed. 

The  battle  was  decisive  in  its  effect — shatter- 
ing the  plans  of  Cornwallis,  which  till  then 
appeared  certain  of  success.  The  victory  put 
a  full  stop  to  the  invasion  of  North  Carolina, 
which  was  then  well  under  way.  Cornwallis 
abandoned  his  carefully  prepared  campaign 
and  immediately  left  the  state.  After  ruth- 
lessly hanging  nine  prisoners,  an  action  which 
had  an  effectively  deterrent  effect  upon  fu- 
ture Tory  murders  and  depredations,  the  pa- 
triot force  quietly  disbanded.  The  brilliant 
initiative  of  the  buckskin-clad  borderers,  the 
strenuous  energy  of  their  pursuit,  the  perfec- 
tion of  their  surprise — all  reinforced  by  the 
employment  of  ideal  tactics  for  meeting  the 
given  situation — were  the  controlling  factors 

304 


KING'S  MOUNTAIN 

in  this  overwhelming  victory  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  pioneers  of  the  Old  Southwest — 
the  independent  and  aggressive  yeomanry  of 
North  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  South  Carolina 
— had  risen  in  their  might.  Without  the  aid 
or  authority  of  blundering  state  governments, 
they  had  created  an  army  of  frontiersmen,  In- 
dian-fighters, and  big-game  hunters  which  had 
found  no  parallel  or  equal  on  the  continent 
since  the  Battle  of  the  Great  Kanawha. 


305 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE   STATE   OF   FRANKLIN 

Designs  of  a  more  dangerous  nature  and  deeper  die  seem  to 
glare  in  the  western  revolt.  ...  I  have  thought  proper  to 
issue  this  manifesto,  hereby  warning  all  persons  concerned 
in  the  said  revolt  .  .  .  that  the  honour  of  this  State  has  been 
particularly  wounded,  by  seizing  that  by  violence  which,  in 
time,  no  doubt,  would  have  been  obtained  by  consent,  when 
the  terms  of  separation  would  have  been  explained  or  stipu- 
lated, to  the  mutual  satisfaction  of  the  mother  and  new 
State.  .  .  .  Let  your  proposals  be  consistent  with  the  honour 
of  the  State  to  accede  to,  which,  by  your  allegiance  as  good 
citizens,  you  cannot  violate  and  I  make  no  doubt  but  her 
generosity,  in  time,   will  meet  your  wishes. 

— GovEHNoa  Alexaxder  Martin:     Manifesto  against 
the  State  of  Franklin,  April  25,  1785. 

TO  the  shrewd  diplomacy  of  Joseph  Mar- 
tin, who  held  the  Cherokees  in  check  dur- 
ing the  period  of  the  King's  Mountain  cam- 
paign, the  settlers  in  the  valleys  of  the  Wa- 
tauga and  the  Holston  owed  their  temporary 
immunity  from  Indian  attack.  But  no  sooner 
did  Sevier  and  his  over-mountain  men  return 
from  the  battle-field  of  King's  Mountain  than 
they  were  called  upon  to  join  in  an  expedition 

306 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

against  the  Cherokees,  who  had  again  gone 
on  the  war-path  at  the  instigation  of  the  Brit- 
ish. After  Sevier  with  his  command  had  de- 
feated a  small  party  of  Indians  at  Boyd's 
Creek  in  December,  the  entire  force  of  seven 
hundred  riflemen,  under  the  command  of 
Colonel  Arthur  Campbell,  with  Major  Joseph 
Martin  as  subordinate,  penetrated  to  the  heart 
of  the  Indian  country,  burned  Echota,  Chil- 
howee,  Settiquo,  Hiawassee,  and  seven  other 
principal  villages,  and  destroyed  an  immense 
amount  of  property  and  supplies.  In  March, 
suspecting  that  the  arch-conspirators  against 
the  white  settlers  were  the  Cherokees  at  the 
head  waters  of  the  Little  Tennessee,  Sevier 
led  one  hundred  and  fifty  horsemen  through 
the  devious  mountain  defiles  and  struck  the  In- 
dians a  swift  and  unexpected  blow  at  Tuck- 
asegee,  near  the  present  Webster,  North  Caro- 
lina. In  this  extraordinarily  daring  raid,  one 
of  his  most  brilliant  feats  of  arms,  Sevier  lost 
only  one  man  killed  and  one  wounded;  while 
upon  the  enemy  he  inflicted  the  loss  of  thirty 
killed,  took  many  more  prisoners,  burned  six 

307 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Indian  towns,  and  captured  many  horses  and 
supplies.  Once  his  deadly  work  was  done, 
Sevier  with  his  bold  cavaliers  silently  plunged 
again  into  the  forest  whence  he  had  so  suddenly 
emerged,  and  returned  in  triumph  to  the  set- 
tlements. 

Disheartened  though  the  Indians  were  to  see 
the  smoke  of  their  burning  towns,  they  sullenly 
remained  averse  to  peace;  and  they  did  not 
keep  the  treaty  made  at  Long  Island  in  July, 
1781.  The  Indians  suffered  from  very  real 
grievances  at  the  hands  of  the  lawless  white 
settlers  who  persisted  in  encroaching  upon  the 
Indian  lands.  When  the  Indian  ravages  were 
resumed,  Sevier  and  Anderson,  the  latter  from 
Sullivan  County,  led  a  punitive  expedition  of 
two  hundred  riflemen  against  the  Creeks  and 
the  Chickamaugas ;  and  employing  the  cus- 
tomary tactics  of  laying  waste  the  Indian 
towns,  administered  stern  and  salutary  chas- 
tisement to  the  copper-colored  marauders. 

During  this  same  period  the  settlers  on  the 
Cumberland  were  displaying  a  grim  fortitude 
and  stoical  endurance  in  the  face  of  Indian 

308 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

attack  forever  memorable  in  the  history  of  the 
Old  Southwest.  On  the  night  of  January  15, 
1781,  the  settlers  at  Freeland's  Station,  after 
a  desperate  resistance,  succeeded  in  beating 
off  the  savages  who  attacked  in  force.  At 
Nashborough  on  April  2d,  twenty  of  the  set- 
tlers were  lured  from  the  stockade  by  the  art- 
ful wiles  of  the  savages;  and  it  was  only  after 
serious  loss  that  they  finally  won  their  way 
back  to  the  protection  of  the  fort.  Indeed, 
their  return  was  due  to  the  fierce  dogs  of  the 
settlers,  which  were  released  at  the  most  critical 
moment,  and  attacked  the  astounded  Indians 
with  such  ferocity  that  the  diversion  thus 
created  enabled  the  settlers  to  escape  from  the 
deadly  trap.  During  the  next  two  years  the 
history  of  the  Cumberland  settlements  is  but 
the  gruesome  recital  of  murder  after  murder 
of  the  whites,  a  few  at  a  time,  by  the  lurking 
Indian  foe.  Robertson's  dominant  influence 
alone  prevented  the  abandonment  of  the  sorely 
harassed  little  stations.  The  arrival  of  the 
North  Carolina  commissioners  for  the  purpose 
of  laying  off  bounty  lands  and  settlers'  pre- 

309 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

emptions,  and  the  treaty  of  peace  concluded 
at  the  French  Lick  on  November  5  and  6, 
1783,  gave  permanence  and  stabiKty  to  the 
Cumberland  settlements.  The  lasting  friend- 
ship of  the  Chickasaws  was  won;  but  the 
Creeks  for  some  time  continued  to  harass  the 
Tennessee  pioneers.  The  frontiersmen's  most 
formidable  foe,  the  Cherokees,  stoically,  hero- 
ically fighting  the  whites  in  the  field,  and 
smallpox,  syphilis,  and  drunkenness  at  home, 
at  last  abandoned  the  unequal  battle.  The 
treaty  at  Hopewell  on  November  28,  1785, 
marks  the  end  of  an  era — the  Spartan  yet 
hopeless  resistance  of  the  intrepid  red  men  to 
the  relentless  and  frequently  unwarranted  ex- 
propriation by  the  whites  of  the  ancient  and 
immemorial  domain  of  the  savage. 

The  skill  in  self-government  of  the  isolated 
people  beyond  the  mountains,  and  the  ability 
they  had  already  demonstrated  in  the  organi- 
zation of  "associations,"  received  a  strong 
stimulus  on  June  2,  1784,  when  the  legislature 
of  North  Carolina  ceded  to  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States  the  title  which  that  state 

310 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

possessed  to  the  land  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 
Among  the  terms  of  the  Cession  Act  were 
these  conditions:  that  the  ceded  territory 
should  be  formed  into  a  separate  state  or 
states;  and  that  if  Congress  should  not  accept 
the  lands  thus  ceded  and  give  due  notice  within 
two  years,  the  act  should  be  of  no  force  and 
the  lands  should  revert  to  North  Carolina.^"'' 
No  sooner  did  this  news  reach  the  Western 
settlers  than  they  began  to  mature  plans  for 
the  organization  of  a  government  during  the 
intervening  twelve  months.  Their  exposed 
condition  on  the  frontiers,  still  harassed  by 
the  Indians,  and  North  Carolina's  delay  in 
sending  goods  promised  the  Indians  by  a  for- 
mer treaty,  both  promoted  Indian  hostility; 
and  these  facts,  combined  with  their  remote 
location  beyond  the  mountains,  rendering  them 
almost  inaccessible  to  communication  with 
North  Carolina — all  rendered  the  decision  of 
the  settlers  almost  inevitable.  Moreover,  the 
allurements  of  high  office  and  the  dazzling 
dreams  of  ambition  were  additional  motives 
sufficiently  human  in  themselves  to  give  driv- 

311 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

ing  power  to  the  movement  toward  independ- 
ence. 

At  a  convention  assembled  at  Jonesborough 
on  August  23,  1784,  delegates  from  the  coun- 
ties of  Washington,  Sullivan,  and  Greene 
characteristically  decided  to  organize  an  "As- 
sociation." They  solemnly  declared  by  reso- 
lution :  "We  have  a  just  and  undeniable  right 
to  petition  to  Congress  to  accept  the  session 
made  by  North  Carolina,  and  for  that  body  to 
countenance  us  for  forming  ourselves  into  a 
separate  government,  and  to  frame  either  a 
permanent  or  temporary  constitution,  agree- 
ably to  a  resolve  of  Congress.  ..."  Mean- 
while, Governor  Martin,  largely  as  the  result 
of  the  prudent  advice  of  North  Carolina's 
representative  in  Congress,  Dr.  Hugh  Wil- 
liamson, was  brought  to  the  conclusion  that 
North  Carolina,  in  the  passage  of  the  cession 
act,  had  acted  precipitately.  This  important 
step  had  been  taken  without  the  full  considera- 
tion of  the  people  of  the  state.  Among  the 
various  arguments  advanced  by  Williamson 
was  the  impressive  contention  that,  in  accord- 

312 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

ance  with  the  procedure  in  the  case  of  other 
states,  the  whole  expense  of  the  huge  Indian 
expeditions  in  1776  and  the  heavy  mihtia  aids 
to  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  should  be  cred- 
ited to  North  Carolina  as  partial  fulfilment 
of  her  continental  obligations  before  the  ces- 
sion should  be  irrevocably  made  to  the  Federal 
government.  Williamson's  arguments  proved 
convincing;  and  it  was  thus  primarily  for 
economic  reasons  of  far-reaching  national  im- 
portance that  the  assembly  of  North  Caro- 
lina (October  22  to  November  25,  1784)  re- 
pealed the  cession  act  made  the  preceding 
spring.  ^''^ 

Before  the  news  of  the  repeal  of  the  cession 
act  could  reach  the  western  waters,  a  second 
convention  met  at  Jonesborough  on  December 
17th.  Sentiment  at  this  time  was  much  di- 
vided, for  a  number  of  the  people,  expecting 
the  repeal  of  the  cession  act,  genuinely  de- 
sired a  continued  allegiance  to  North  Caro- 
lina. Of  these  may  well  have  been  John 
Sevier,  who  afterward  declared  to  Joseph  Mar- 
tin that  he  had  been  "Draged  into  the  Frank- 

313 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

lin  measures  by  a  large  number  of  the  people 
of  this  country."  ^"^  The  principal  act  of  this 
convention  was  the  adoption  of  a  temporary 
constitution  for  six  months  and  the  provision 
for  a  convention  to  be  held  within  one  year,  at 
the  expiration  of  which  time  this  constitution 
should  be  altered,  or  adopted  as  the  permanent 
constitution  of  the  new  state.^*^^  The  scholars 
on  the  western  waters,  desiring  to  commemo- 
rate their  aspirations  for  freedom,  chose  as 
the  name  of  the  projected  new  state:  ''Frank- 
land" — the  Land  of  the  Free.  The  name 
finally  chosen,  however,  perhaps  for  reasons  of 
policy,  was  "Franklin,"  in  honor  of  Benjamin 
Franklin.  Meanwhile,  in  order  to  meet  the 
pressing  needs  for  a  stable  government  along 
the  Tennessee  frontier,  the  North  Carolina 
assembly,  which  repealed  the  cession  act,  cre- 
ated out  of  the  four  western  counties  the 
District  of  Washington,  with  John  Hay- 
wood as  presiding  judge  and  David  Camp- 
bell as  associate,  and  conferred  upon  John 
Sevier  the  rank  of  brigadier-general  of  the 
new  district.     The   first  week   in   December 

314 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

Governor  Martin  sent  to  Sevier  his  military 
commission;  and  replying  to  Joseph  Martin's 
query  (December  31,  1784,  prompted  by  Gov- 
ernor Martin)  as  to  whether,  in  view  of  the 
repeal  of  the  cession  act,  he  intended  to  persist 
in  revolt  or  await  developments,  Sevier  gave 
it  out  broadcast  that  "we  shall  pursue  no  fur- 
their  measures  as  to  a  new  State." 

Owing  to  the  remoteness  of  the  Tennessee 
settlements  and  the  difficulty  of  appreciating 
through  correspondence  the  atmosphere  of 
sentiment  in  Franklin,  Governor  Martin  real- 
ized the  necessity  of  sending  a  personal  repre- 
sentative to  discover  the  true  state  of  affairs 
in  the  disaffected  region  beyond  the  moun- 
tains. For  the  post  of  ambassador  to  the  new 
government,  Governor  Martin  selected  a  man 
distinguished  for  mentality  and  diplomatic 
skill,  a  pioneer  of  Tennessee  and  Kentucky, 
Judge  Richard  Henderson's  brother.  Colonel 
Samuel  Henderson.  Despite  Sevier's  dis- 
avowal of  any  further  intention  to  establish 
a  new  state,  the  governor  gave  Colonel  Hen- 
derson elaborate  written  instructions,  the  pur- 

315 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

port  of  which  was  to  learn  all  that  he  could 
about  the  political  complexion  of  the  Tennes- 
see frontiersmen,  the  sense  of  the  people,  and 
the  agitation  for  a  separate  commonwealth. 
Moreover,  in  the  hope  of  placating  the  leading 
chieftains  of  the  Cherokees,  who  had  bitterly- 
protested  against  the  continued  aggressions 
and  encroachments  upon  their  lands  by  the 
lawless  borderers,  he  instructed  Colonel  Hen- 
derson also  to  learn  the  temper  and  disposi- 
tions of  the  Indians,  and  to  investigate  the 
case  of  Colonel  James  Hubbardt  who  was 
charged  with  the  murder  of  Untoola  of  Set- 
tiquo,  a  chief  of  the  Cherokees. 

When  Colonel  Henderson  arrived  at  Jones- 
borough,  he  found  the  third  Franklin  legis- 
lature in  session,  and  to  this  body  he  presented 
Governor  Martin's  letter  of  February  27, 
1785.  In  response  to  the  governor's  request 
for  an  "account  of  the  late  proceedings  of  the 
people  in  the  western  country,"  an  extended 
reply  was  drafted  by  the  new  legislature ;  and 
this  letter,  conveyed  to  Governor  Martin  by 
Colonel  Henderson,  in  setting  forth  in  detail 

me 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

the  reasons  for  the  secession,  made  the  follow- 
ing significant  statement:  "We  humbly 
thank  North  Carolina  for  every  sentiment  of 
regard  she  has  for  us,  but  are  sorry  to  observe, 
that  as  it  is  founded  upon  principles  of  in- 
terest, as  is  aparent  from  the  tenor  of  your 
letter,  we  are  doubtful,  when  the  cause  ceases 
which  is  the  basis  of  that  affection,  we  shall 
lose  your  esteem."  At  the  same  time  (March 
22d),  Sevier,  who  had  just  been  chosen  Gov- 
ernor of  the  State  of  Franklin,  transmitted 
to  Governor  Martin  by  Colonel  Henderson  a 
long  letter,  not  hitherto  published  in  any  his- 
tory of  the  period,  in  which  he  outspokenly 
says: 

It  gives  me  great  pain  to  think  there  should 
arise  any  Disputes  between  us  and  North 
Carolina,  &  I  flatter  myself  when  North  Caro- 
lina states  the  matter  in  a  fair  light  she  will 
be  fully  convinced  that  necessity  and  self- 
preservation  have  Compelled  Us  to  the  meas- 
ures we  Have  taken,  and  could  the  people  have 
discovered  that  No.  Carolina  would  Have  pro- 
tected and  Govern'd  them,  They  would  have 
remained  where  they  were ;  but  they  perceived 

317 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

a  neglect  and  Coolness,  and  the  Language  of 
Many  of  your  most  leading  members  Con- 
vinced them  they  were  Altogether  Disre- 
garded.^"^ 

Following  the  issuance  of  vigorous  manifestos 
by  Martin  (April  25th)  and  Sevier  (May 
15th), ^*^^  the  burden  of  the  problem  fell  upon 
Richard  Caswell,  who  in  June  succeeded  Mar- 
tin as  Governor  of  North  Carolina. 

JNIeantime  the  legislature  of  the  over-moun- 
tain men  had  given  the  name  of  Franklin  to 
the  new  state,  although  for  some  time  it  con- 
tinued to  be  called  by  many  Frankland,  and 
its  adherents  Franks.  The  legislature  had 
also  established  an  academy  named  after  Gov- 
ernor INIartin,  and  had  appointed  (March 
12th)  William  Cocke  as  a  delegate  to  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  urging  its  acceptance  of  the 
cession.  In  the  Memorial  from  the  Franklin 
legislature  to  the  Continental  Congi-ess,  deal- 
ing in  some  detail  with  North  Carolina's  fail- 
ure to  send  the  Cherokees  some  goods  prom- 
ised them  for  lands  acquired  by  treaty,  it  is 
alleged: 

318 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

She  [North  Carohna]  immediately  stoped 
the  goods  she  had  promised  to  give  the  Indians 
for  the  said  land  which  so  exasperated  them 
that  they  begun  to  commit  hostalities  on  our 
frontiers  in  this  situation  we  were  induced  to 
a  declaration  of  Independence  not  doubting 
we  should  be  excused  by  Congress  ...  as 
North  Carolina  seemed  quite  regardless  of  our 
interest  and  the  Indians  daily  murdering  our 
friends  and  relations  without  distinction  of  age 


Sympathizing  with  the  precarious  situation 
of  the  settlers,  as  well  as  desiring  the  cession. 
Congress  urged  North  Carolina  to  amend  the 
repealing  act  and  execute  a  conveyance  of  the 
western  territory  to  the  Union. 

Among  the  noteworthy  features  of  the 
Franklin  movement  was  the  constitution  pre- 
pared by  a  committee,  headed  by  the  Rever- 
end Samuel  Houston  of  Washington  County, 
and  presented  at  the  meeting  of  the  Franklin 
legislature,  Greeneville,  November  14,  1785. 
This  eccentric  constitution  was  based  in  con- 
siderable part  upon  the  North  Carolina  model ; 
but  it  was  "rejected  in  the  lump"  and  the 

319 


DECLARATION  op  RIGHTS 

ALSO,     T   H   ■ 

CONSTITUTION 

O   It 

FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT 


Agreed  co«  and  refoU'cd  ap6n,  by  the  REpRESEih 
TATivtt  of  the  Freemen  of  the 


STATE  OP  FRANKLAND> 

EleAed  zzA  cTiofen  for  tTiat  rarticKTir  furpofe,  in 
Qonvention  afreinbl*4,ai  Greenevhlc  ih* 
(4tli  ^^ovcmbn^  ilH' 


■     ^    :'  ■■■■         <:,-  / 

f  HI  L  A  oy^JiP  SJ^J: 

Printed  by  Frawcis  Bailey,  At  TorJtk'*  H(«d. 

|II.DCC.,IiXXXV% 

320 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

constitution  of  North  Carolina,  almost  un- 
changed, was  adopted.  Under  this  Hous- 
ton constitution,  the  name  "Frankland"  was 
chosen  for  the  new  state.  The  legislature 
was  to  consist  of  but  a  single  house.  In  a 
section  excluding  from  the  legislature  "min- 
isters of  the  gospel,  attorneys  at  law,  and 
doctors  of  physics,"  those  were  declared  in- 
eligible for  office  who  were  of  immoral  char- 
acter or  guilty  of  "such  flagrant  enormities 
as  drunkenness,  gaming,  profane  swearing, 
lewdness.  Sabbath-breaking  and  such  like," 
or  who  should  deny  the  existence  of  God, 
of  heaven,  and  of  hell,  the  inspiration  of 
the  Scriptures,  or  the  existence  of  the  Trin- 
ity. Full  religious  liberty  and  the  rights  of 
conscience  were  assured — but  strict  orthodoxy 
was  a  condition  for  eligibility  to  office.  No 
one  should  be  chosen  to  office  who  was  "not 
a  scholar  to  do  the  business."  This  remark- 
able document,  which  provided  for  many 
other  curious  innovations  in  government,  was 
the  work  of  pioneer  doctrinaires — Houston, 
Campbell,  Cocke,  and  Tipton — and  deserves 

321 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

study  as  a  bizarre  reflection  of  the  spirit  and 
genius  of  the  western  frontiersmen.^^^ 

The  hberal  pohey  of  Martin,  followed  by 
the  no  less  conciliatory  attitude  of  his  successor, 
Caswell,  for  the  time  proved  wholly  abortive. 
However,  Martin's  appointment  of  Evan 
Shelby  in  Sevier's  place  as  brigadier,  and  of 
Jonathan  Tipton  as  colonel  of  his  county,  pro- 
duced disaffection  among  the  Franks ;  and  the 
influence  of  Joseph  Martin  against  the  new 
government  was  a  powerful  obstacle  to  its 
success.  At  first  the  two  sets  of  military,  civil, 
and  judicial  officers  were  able  to  work  amica- 
bly together ;  and  a  working-basis  drawn  up  by 
Shelby  and  Sevier,  although  afterward  repu- 
diated by  the  Franklin  legislature,  smoothed 
over  some  of  the  rapidly  accumulating  diffi- 
culties. The  persistent  and  quiet  assertion  of 
authority  by  North  Carolina,  without  any 
overt  act  of  violence  against  the  officers  of 
Franklin  state,  revealed  great  diplomatic  skill 
in  Governors  Martin  and  Caswell.  It  was 
doubtless  the  considerate  policy  of  the  latter, 
coupled  with  the  defection  from  Sevier's  cause 

322 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

of  men  of  the  stamp  of  Houston  and  Tipton, 
after  the  blundering  and  cavalier  rejection  of 
their  singular  constitution,  which  undermined 
the  foundations  of  Franklin.  Sevier  himself 
later  wrote  with  considerable  bitterness:  "I 
have  been  faithfull,  and  my  own  breast  acquits 
myself  that  I  have  acted  no  part  but  what  has 
been  Consistent  with  honor  and  justice,  tem- 
pered with  Clemency  and  mercy.  How  far 
our  pretended  patriots  have  supported  me  as 
their  pretended  chiefe  magistrate,  I  leave  the 
world  at  large  to  Judge."  Arthur  Camp- 
bell's plans  for  the  formation  of  a  greater 
Franklin,  through  the  union  of  the  people  on 
the  western  waters  of  Virginia  with  those  of 
North  Carolina,  came  to  nought  when  Vir- 
ginia in  the  autumn  of  1785  with  stern  deci- 
siveness passed  an  act  making  it  high  treason 
to  erect  an  independent  government  within  her 
limits  unless  authorized  by  the  assembly. 
Sevier,  however,  became  more  fixed  in  his  de- 
termination to  establish  a  free  state,  writing 
to  Governor  Caswell:  "We  shall  continue  to 
act  independent  and  would  rather  suffer  death, 

323 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

in  all  its  various  and  frightful  shapes,  than 
conform  to  anything  that  is  disgraceful." 
North  Carolina,  now  proceeding  with  vigor 
(November,  1786),  fully  reassumed  its  sover- 
eignty and  jurisdiction  over  the  mountain 
counties,  but  passed  an  act  of  pardon  and  ob- 
livion, and  in  many  ways  adopted  moderate 
and  conciliatory  measures. 

Driven  to  extremities,  Cocke  and  Sevier  in 
turn  appealed  for  aid  and  advice  to  Benjamin 
Franklin,  in  whose  honor  the  new  state  had 
been  named.  In  response  to  Cocke,  Frank- 
lin wrote  (August  12,  1786) :  "I  think  you 
are  perfectly  right  in  resolving  to  submit  them 
[the  Points  in  Dispute]  to  the  Decision  of 
Congress  and  to  abide  by  their  Determina- 
tion." ^^^  Franklin's  views  change  in  the  in- 
terim; for  when,  almost  a  year  later,  Sevier 
asks  him  for  counsel,  Franklin  has  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  wisest  move  for  Sevier 
was  not  to  appeal  to  Congress,  but  to  endeavor 
to  effect  some  satisfactory  compromise  with 
North  Carolina  (June  30,  1787)  : 

324 


THE  STATE  OF  FRANKLIN 

There  are  only  two  Things  that  Humanity 
induces  me  to  wish  you  may  succeed  in:  The 
Accomodating  your  Misunderstanding  with 
the  Government  of  North  Carolina,  by  amica- 
ble Means;  and  the  Avoiding  an  Indian  war, 
by  preventing  Encroaching  on  their  Lands. 
.  .  .  The  Inconvenience  to  your  People  at- 
tending so  remote  a  Seat  of  Government,  and 
the  difficulty  to  that  Government  in  ruling  well 
so  remote  a  People,  would  I  think  be  powerful 
Inducements  with  it,  to  accede  to  any  fair  & 
reasonable  Proposition  it  may  receive  from  you 
towards  an  Accomodation.^ ^^ 

Despite  Sevier's  frenzied  efforts  to  achieve 
independence — his  treaty  with  the  Indians,  his 
sensational  plan  to  incorporate  the  Cherokees 
into  the  new  state,  his  constancy  to  an  ideal  of 
revolt  against  others  in  face  of  the  reality  of 
revolt  against  himself,  his  struggle,  equivocal 
and  half-hearted,  with  the  North  Carolina  au- 
thorities under  Tipton — despite  all  these  heroic 
efforts,  the  star  of  Franklin  swiftly  declined. 
The  vigorous  measures  pursued  by  General 
Joseph  Martin,  and  his  effective  influence  fo- 
cussed    upon    a    movement    already    honey- 

325 


THE  COxNQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

combed  with  disaffection,  finally  turned  the 
scale.  To  the  Franklin  leaders  he  sent  the 
urgent  message:  "Nothing  will  do  but  a  sub- 
mission to  the  laws  of  North  Carolina." 
Early  in  April,  1788,  Martin  wrote  to  Gov- 
ernor Randolph  of  Virginia:  "I  returned  last 
evening  from  Green  Co.  Washington  destrict, 
North  Carolina,  after  a  tower  through  that 
Co'ntry,  and  am  happy  to  inform  your  Ex- 
cellency that  the  late  unhappy  dispute  between 
the  State  of  North  Carolina,  and  the  pretended 
State  of  Franklin  is  subsided."  Ever  brave, 
constant,  and  loyal  to  the  interest  of  the  pio- 
neers, Sevier  had  originally  been  drawn  into 
the  movement  against  his  best  judgment. 
Caught  in  the  unique  trap,  created  by  the  pas- 
sage of  the  cession  act  and  the  sudden  volte- 
face  of  its  repeal,  he  struggled  desperately  to 
extricate  himself.  Alone  of  all  the  leaders, 
the  governor  of  ill-starred  Franklin  remained 
recalcitrant. 


326 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE   LURE   OF   SPAIN  ^^^ — THE   HAVEN   OF 
STATEHOOD 

The  people  of  this  region  have  come  to  realize  truly  upon 
what  part  of  the  world  and  upon  which  nation  their  future 
happiness  and  security  depend,  and  they  immediately  infer 
that  their  interest  and  prosperity  depend  entirely  upon  the 
protection  and   liberality  of  your  government, 

— JoHx  Sevier  to  Don  Diego  de  Gardoqui,  Sep- 
tember 12,  1788. 

From  the  early  settlements  in  the  eastern  parts  of  this 
Continent  to  the  late  &  more  recent  settlements  on  the  Ken- 
tucliv  in  the  West  the  same  difficulties  have  constantly  oc- 
curred which  now  oppress  you,  but  by  a  series  of  patient 
sufferings,  manly  and  spirited  exertions  and  unconquerable 
perseverance,  they  have  been  altogether  or  in  great  measure 
subdued. 

— Governor  Samuel  Johnstox  to  James  Robert- 
son and  Anthony  Bledsoe,  January  29,  1788. 

A  STRANGE  sham-battle,  staged  like 
some  scene  from  opera  houffe,  in  the 
bleak  snow-storm  of  February,  1788,  is  really 
the  prelude  to  a  remarkable  drama  of  revolt 
in  which  Sevier,  Robertson,  Bledsoe,  and  the 

327 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Cumberland  stalwarts  play  the  leading  roles. 
On  February  27th,  incensed  beyond  measure 
by  the  action  of  Colonel  John  Tipton  in  har- 
boring some  of  his  slaves  seized  by  the  sheriff 
under  an  execution  issued  by  one  of  the  North 
Carolina  courts,  Sevier  with  one  hundred  and 
fifty  adherents  besieged  Tipton  with  a  few  of 
his  friends  in  his  home  on  Sinking  Creek.  The 
siege  was  raised  at  daybreak  on  February  29th 
by  tlie  arrival  of  reinforcements  under  Colonel 
Maxwell  from  Sullivan  County;  and  Sevier, 
who  was  unwilling  to  precipitate  a  conflict, 
withdrew  his  forces  after  some  desultory  fir- 
ing, in  which  two  men  were  killed  and  several 
wounded.  Soon  afterward  Sevier  sent  word 
to  Tipton  that  on  condition  his  life  be  spared 
he  would  submit  to  North  Carolina.  On  this 
note  of  tragi-comedy  the  State  of  Franklin 
appeared  quietly  to  expire.  The  usually 
sanguine  Sevier,  now  thoroughly  chastened, 
sought  shelter  in  the  distant  settlements — 
deeply  despondent  over  the  humiliating  fail- 
ure of  his  plans  and  the  even  more  depressing 
defection   of  his   erstwhile   friends   and   sup- 

S28 


JOHN   SEVIER    (1745-1815) 

From  a   miniature  attributed  to  C.   W.    Peale,   in  the   possession   of 
Mr.  Daniel  V.  Sevier 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

porters.  The  revolutionary  designs  and  sepa- 
ratist tendencies  which  he  still  harbored  were 
soon  to  involve  him  in  a  secret  conspiracy  to 
give  over  the  State  of  Franklin  into  the  pro- 
tection of  a  foreign  power. 

The  fame  of  Sevier's  martial  exploits  and 
of  his  bold  stroke  for  independence  had  long 
since  gone  abroad,  astounding  even  so  famous 
an  advocate  of  liberty  as  Patrick  Henry  and 
winning  the  sympathy  of  the  Continental  Con- 
gress. One  of  the  most  interested  observers 
of  the  progress  of  affairs  in  the  State  of  Frank- 
lin wa:^  Don  Diego  de  Gardoqui,  who  had  come 
to  America  in  the  spring  of  1785,  bearing  a  com- 
mission to  the  American  Congress  as  Spanish 
charge  d'affaires  (Encargados  de  Negocios) 
to  the  United  States.\  In  the  course  of  his 
negotiations  with  Jay  concerning  the  right  of 
navigation  of  the  Mississippi  River,  which 
Spain  denied  to  the  Americans,  Gardoqui  was 
not  long  in  discovering  the  violent  resentment 
of  the  Western  frontiersmen,  provoked  by 
Jay's  crass  blunder  in  proposing  that  the 
American  republic,  in  return  for  reciprocal 

329 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

foreign  advantages  offered  by  Spain,  should 
waive  for  twenty-five  j'^ears  her  right  to  navi- 
gate the  Mississippi.  The  Cumberland  trad- 
ers had  already  felt  the  heavy  hand  of  Spain 
in  the  confiscation  of  their  goods  at  Natchez; 
but  thus  far  the  leaders  of  the  Tennessee  fron- 
tiersmen had  prudently  restrained  the  more 
turbulent  agitators  against  the  Spanish  policy, 
fearing  lest  the  spirit  of  retaliation,  once 
aroused,  might  know  no  bounds.  Throughout 
the  entire  region  of  the  trans -Alleghany,  a 
feeling  of  discontent  and  unrest  prevailed — 
quite  as  much  the  result  of  dissatisfaction  with 
the  central  government  which  permitted  the 
wholesale  restraint  of  trade,  as  of  resentment 
against  the  domination  of  Spain. 

No  sooner  had  the  shrewd  and  watchful 
Gardoqui,  who  was  eager  to  utilize  the  sepa- 
ratist sentiment  of  the  western  settlements  in 
the  interest  of  his  country,  learned  of  Sevier's 
armed  insurrection  against  the  authority  of 
North  Carolina  than  he  despatched  an  emis- 
sary to  sound  the  leading  men  of  Franklin  and 
the  Cumberland  settlements  in  regard  to  an 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

alliance.  This  secret  emissary  was  Dr.  James 
White,  who  had  been  appointed  by  the  United 
States  Government  as  Superintendent  of  In- 
dian Affairs  for  the  Southern  Department  on 
November  29,  1786.  Reporting  as  instructed 
to  Don  Estevan  Miro,  governor  of  Louisiana, 
White,  the  corrupt  tool  of  Spain,  stated  con- 
cerning his  confidential  mission  that  the  lead- 
ers of  "Frankland"  and  "Cumberland  district" 
had  "eagerly  accepted  the  conditions"  laid 
down  by  Gardoqui:  to  take  the  oath  of  alle- 
giance to  Spain,  and  to  renounce  all  submis- 
sion or  allegiance  whatever  to  any  other  sover- 
eign or  power.  Satisfied  by  the  secret  advices 
received,  the  Spanish  minister  reported  to  the 
home  authorities  his  confident  belief  that  the 
Tennessee  backwoodsmen,  if  diplomatically 
handled,  would  readily  throw  in  their  lot  with 
Spain.^" 

After  the  fiasco  of  his  siege  of  Tipton's 
home,  Sevier  had  seized  upon  the  renewal  of 
hostilities  by  the  Cherokees  as  a  means  of  re- 
gaining his  popularity.  This  he  counted  upon 
doing  by  rallying  his  old  comrades-in-arms 

331 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

under  his  standard  and  making  one  of  his  me- 
teoric, whirlwind  onslaughts  upon  their  ancient 
Indian  foe.  The  victory  of  this  erstwhile  pop- 
ular hero,  the  beloved  "Nolichucky  Jack  of 
the  Border,"  over  the  Indians  at  a  town  on  the 
Hiwassee  "so  raised  him  in  the  esteem  of  the 
people  on  the  frontier,"  reports  Colonel  Max- 
well, "that  the  people  began  [once  more]  to 
flock  to  his  standard."  Inspirited  by  this  good 
turn  in  his  fortunes,  Sevier  readily  responded 
to  Dr.  White's  overtures. 

Alarmed  early  in  the  year  over  the  unpro- 
voked depredations  and  murders  by  the  In- 
dians in  several  Tennessee  counties  and  on  the 
Kentucky  road,  Sevier,  Robertson,  and  An- 
thony Bledsoe  had  persuaded  Governor  Sam- 
uel Johnston  of  North  Carolina  to  address 
Gardoqui  and  request  him  to  exert  his  influ- 
ence to  prevent  further  acts  of  savage  bar- 
barity. In  letters  to  Governor  Johnston,  to 
Robertson,  and  to  Sevier,  all  of  date  April 
18th,  Gardoqui  expressed  himself  in  general 
as  being  "extremely  surprised  to  know  that 
there  is  a  suspicion  that  the  good  government 

332 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

of  Spain  is  encouraging  these  acts  of  bar- 
barity." The  letters  to  Robertson  and  Sevier, 
read  between  the  lines  as  suggestive  reinforce- 
ments of  Spain's  secret  proposals,  possess  real 
significance.  The  letter  to  Sevier  contains 
this  dexterously  expressed  sentiment:  "His 
Majesty  is  very  favorably  inclined  to  give  the 
inhabitants  of  that  region  all  the  protection 
that  they  ask  for  and,  on  my  part,  I  shall  take 
very  great  pleasure  in  contributing  to  it  on 
this  occasion  and  other  occasions." 

'This  letter,  coupled  with  the  confidential 
proposals  of  Dr.  White,  furnished  a  conven- 
ient opening  for  coiTespondence  with  the 
Spaniards ;  and  in  July  Sevier  wrote  to  Gardo- 
qui  indicating  his  readiness  to  accede  to  their 
proposals.  After  secret  conferences  with  men 
who  had  supported  him  throughout  the  vicis- 
situdes of  his  ill-starred  state,  Sevier  carefully 
matured  his  plans.  The  remarkable  letter  of 
great  length  which  he  wrote  to  Gardoqui  on 
September  12,  1788,  reveals  the  conspiracy  in 
all  its  details  and  presents  in  vivid  colors  the 
strong  separatist  sentiment  of  the  day.     Sevier 

333 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

urgently  petitions  Gardoqui  for  the  loan  of  a 
few  thousand  pounds,  to  enable  him  to  "make 
the  most  expedient  and  necessary  preparations 
for  defense";  and  offers  to  repay  the  loan 
within  a  short  time  "by  sending  the  products 
of  this  region  to  the  lower  ports."  Upon  the 
vital  matter  of  "delivering"  the  State  of 
Franklin  to  Spain,  he  forthrightly  says: 

Since  my  last  of  the  18th  of  July,  upon  con- 
sulting with  the  principal  men  of  this  coun- 
try, I  have  been  particularly  happy  to  find 
that  they  are  equally  disposed  and  ready  as  I 
am  to  accept  your  propositions  and  guaran- 
tees. You  may  be  sure  that  the  pleasing  hopes 
and  ideas  which  the  people  of  this  country  hold 
with  regard  to  the  probabability  of  an  alliance 
with,  and  commercial  concessions  from,  you 
are  very  ardent,  and  that  we  are  unanimously 
determined  on  that  score.  The  people  of  this 
region  have  come  to  realize  truly  upon  what 
part  of  the  world  and  upon  which  nation  their 
future  happiness  and  security  depend,  and 
they  immediately  infer  that  their  interest  and 
prosperity  depend  entirely  upon  the  protec- 
tion and  liberality  of  your  government.  .  .  . 
Being  the  first  from  this  side  of  the  Appala- 
chian Mountains  to  resort  in  this  way  to  your 

334 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

protection  and  liberality,  we  feel  encouraged 
to  entertain  the  greatest  hope  that  we  shall 
be  granted  all  reasonable  aid  by  him  who  is 
so  amply  able  to  do  it,  and  to  give  the  pro- 
tection and  help  that  is  asked  of  him  in  this 
petition.  You  know  our  delicate  situation  and 
the  difficulties  in  which  we  are  in  respect  to 
our  mother  State  which  is  making  use  of  every 
strategem  to  impede  the  development  and 
prosperity  of  this  country.  .  .  .  Before  I  con- 
clude, it  may  be  necessary  to  remind  you  that 
there  will  be  no  more  favorable  occasion  than 
the  present  one  to  put  this  plan  into  execution. 
North  Carolina  has  rejected  the  Constitution 
and  moreover  it  seems  to  me  that  a  consider- 
able time  will  elapse  before  she  becomes  ^ 
member  of  the  Union,  if  that  event  ever  hap- 
pens. 

Through  Miro,  Gardoqui  was  simultane- 
ously conducting  a  similar  correspondence  with 
General  James  Wilkinson.  The  object  of  the 
Spanish  conspiracy,  matured  as  the  result  of 
this  correspondence,  was  to  seduce  Kentucky 
from  her  allegiance  to  the  United  States.  De- 
spite the  superficial  similarity  between  the  sit- 
uation of  Franklin  and  Kentucky,  it  would 
be  doing  Sevier  and  his  adherents  a  capital 

335 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

injustice  to  place  them  in  the  category  of  the 
corrupt  Wilkinson  and  the  malodorous  Se- 
bastian. Moreover,  the  secessionists  of  Frank- 
lin, as  indicated  in  the  above  letter,  had 
the  excuse  of  being  left  virtually  without 
a  country.  On  the  preceding  August  1st, 
North  Carolina  had  rejected  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States;  and  the  leaders 
of  Franklin,  who  were  sorely  aggrieved  by 
what  they  regarded  as  her  indifference  and 
neglect,  now  felt  themselves  more  than  ever 
out  of  the  Union  and  wholly  repudiated  by 
the  mother  state.  Again,  Sevier  had  the  em- 
bittered feeling  resultant  from  outlawry.  Be- 
cause of  his  course  in  opposing  the  laws  and 
government  of  North  Carolina  and  in  the  kill- 
ing of  several  good  citizens,  including  the 
sheriff  of  Washington  County,  by  his  forces  at 
Sinking  Creek,  Sevier,  through  the  action  of 
Governor  Johnston  of  North  Carolina,  had 
been  attainted  of  high  treason.  Under  the 
heavy  burden  of  this  grave  charge,  he  felt  his 
hold  upon  Franklin  relax.  Further,  an  atrocity 
committed    in    the    recent    campaign    under 

336 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

Sevier's  leadership — Kirk's  brutal  murder  of 
Corn  Tassel,  a  noble  old  Indian,  and  other 
chieftains,  while  under  the  protection  of  a  flag 
of  truce — had  placed  a  bar  sinister  across  the 
fair  fame  of  this  stalwart  of  the  border.  Utter 
desperation  thus  prompted  Sevier's  acceptance 
of  Gardoqui's  offer  of  the  protection  of  Spain. 
John  Sevier's  son,  James,  bore  the  letter 
of  September  12th  to  Gardoqui.  By  a 
strangely  ironic  coincidence,  on  the  very  day 
(October  10,  1788)  that  Gardoqui  wrote  to 
Miro,  recommending  to  the  attention  of  Spain 
Dr.  White  and  James  Sevier,  the  emissaries 
of  Franklin,  with  their  plans  and  proposals, 
John  Sevier  was  arrested  by  Colonel  Tipton 
at  the  Widow  Brown's  in  Washington  County, 
on  the  charge  of  high  treason.  He  was  hand- 
cuffed and  borne  off,  first  to  Jonesborough 
and  later  to  Morganton.  But  his  old  friends 
and  former  comrades-in-arms,  Charles  and 
Joseph  McDowell,  gave  bond  for  his  appear- 
ance at  court;  and  Morrison,  the  sheriff,  who 
also  had  fought  at  King's  Mountain,  knocked 
the  irons  from  his  wrists  and  released  him  on 

337 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

parole.  Soon  afterward  a  number  of  Sevier's 
devoted  friends,  indignant  over  his  arrest,  rode 
across  the  mountains  to  Morganton  and  si- 
lently bore  him  away,  never  to  be  arrested 
again.  In  November  an  act  of  pardon  and 
oblivion  with  respect  to  Franklin  was  passed 
by  the  North  Carolina  Assembly.  Although 
Sevier  was  forbidden  to  hold  office  under  the 
state,  the  passage  of  this  act  automatically  op- 
erated to  clear  him  of  the  alleged  offense  of 
high  treason.  With  affairs  in  Franklin  tak- 
ing this  turn,  it  is  little  wonder  that  Gardoqui 
and  Miro  paid  no  further  heed  to  Sevier's  pro- 
posal to  accept  the  protection  of  Spain. 
Sevier's  continued  agitation  in  behalf  of  the 
independence  of  Franklin  inspired  Governor 
Johnston  with  the  fear  that  he  would  have  to 
be  "proceeded  against  to  the  last  extremity." 
But  Sevier's  opposition  finally  subsiding,  he 
was  pardoned,  given  a  seat  in  the  North  Caro- 
lina assembly,  and  with  extraordinary  consid- 
eration honored  with  his  former  rank  of  briga- 
dier-general. 

When  Dr.  White  reported  to  Miro  that  the 
338 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

leaders  of  "Frankland"  had  eagerly  accepted 
Gardoqui's  conditions  for  an  alliance  with 
Spain,  he  categorically  added:  "With  regard 
to  Cumberland  district,  what  I  have  said  of 
Frankland  applies  to  it  with  equal  force  and 
truth."  James  Robertson  and  Anthony  Bled- 
soe had  but  recently  availed  themselves  of  the 
good  offices  of  Governor  Johnston  of  North 
Carolina  in  the  effort  to  influence  Gardoqui  to 
quiet  the  Creek  Indians.  The  sagacious  and 
unscrupulous  half  breed  Alexander  McGilli- 
vray  had  placed  the  Creeks  under  the  protec- 
tion of  Spain  in  1784;  and  shortly  afterward 
they  began  to  be  regularly  supplied  with  am- 
munition by  the  Spanish  authorities.  J  At  first 
Spain  pursued  the  policy  of  secretly  encour- 
aging these  Indians  to  resist  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  Americans,  while  she  remained 
on  outwardly  friendly  terms  with  the  United 
States.  During  the  period  of  the  Spanish 
conspiracy,  however,  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  Miro  endeavored  to  keep  the  Indians  at 
peace  with  the  borderers,  as  a  friendly  service, 
intended  to  pave  the  way  for  the  establishment 

339 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

of  intimate  relations  between  Spain  and  the 
dwellers  in  the  trans- Alleghany .t  Yet  his  ef- 
forts cannot  have  been  very  effective;  for  the 
Cumberland  settlements  continued  to  suffer 
from  the  ravages  and  depredations  of  the 
Creeks,  who  remained  "totally  averse  to  peace, 
notwithstanding  they  have  had  no  cause  of 
offence"^  and  Robertson  and  Bledsoe  reported 
to  Governor  Caswell  (June  12,  1787)  :  "It 
is  certain,  the  Chickasaws  inform  us,  that 
Spanish  traders  offer  a  reward  for  scalps  of 
the  Americans."!  The  Indian  atrocities  be- 
came so  frequent  that  Robertson  later  in  the 
summer  headed  a  party  on  the  famous  Cold- 
water  Expedition,  in  which  he  severely  chas- 
tised the  marauding  Indians.  Aroused  by  the 
loss  of  a  number  of  chiefs  and  warriors  at  the 
hands  of  Robertson's  men,  and  instigated,  as 
was  generally  believed,  by  the  Spaniards,  the 
Creeks  then  prosecuted  their  attacks  with  re- 
newed violence  against  the  Cumberland  settle- 
ments. 

Unprotected  either  by  the  mother  state  or 
by  the  national  government,  unable  to  secure 

340 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

free  passage  to  the  Gulf  for  their  products, 
and  sorely  pressed  to  defend  their  homes,  now 
seriously  endangered  by  the  incessant  attacks 
of  the  Creeks,  the  Cumberland  leaders  decided 
to  make  secret  overtures  to  McGillivray,  as 
well  as  to  communicate  to  Miro,  through  Dr. 
White,  their  favorable  inclination  toward  the 
proposals  of  the  one  country  which  promised 
them  protection.  I  In  a  letter  which  McGilli- 
vray wrote  to  Miro  (transmitted  to  Madrid, 
June  15, 1788)  in  regard  to  the  visit  of  Messrs. 
Hackett  and  Ewing,  two  trusty  messengers 
sent  by  Robertson  and  Bledsoe,  he  reports  that 
the  two  delegates  from  the  district  of  Cum- 
berland had  not  only  submitted  to  him  pro- 
posals of  peace  but  "had  added  that  they  would 
throw  themselves  into  the  arms  of  His  Maj- 
esty as  subjects,  and  that  Kentucky  and  Cum- 
berland are  determined  to  free  themselves  from 
their  dependence  on  Congress,  \  because  that 
body  can  not  protect  either  their  property,  or 
favor  their  commerce,  and  they  therefore  be- 
lieve that  they  no  longer  owe  obedience  to  a 
power  which  is  incapable  of  protecting  them," 

341 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Commenting  upon  McGillivray's  communica- 
tion, Miro  said  in  his  report  to  Madrid  (June 
15,  1788)  :  "I  consider  as  extremely  interest- 
ing the  intelligence  conveyed  to  McGillivray 
by  the  deputies  on  the  fermentation  existing 
in  Kentucky,  with  regard  to  a  separation  from 
the  Union.  Concerning  the  proposition  made 
to  McGillivray  by  the  inhabitants  of  Cumber- 
land to  become  the  vassals  of  His  Majesty,  I 
have  refrained  from  returning  any  precise  an- 
swer." 

In  his  long  letter  of  reply  to  Robertson  and 
Bledsoe,  McGillivray  agreed  to  make  peace 
between  his  nation,  the  Creeks,  and  the  Cum- 
berland settlers.  This  letter  was  most  favor- 
ably received  and  given  wide  circulation 
throughout  the  West.  In  a  most  ingratiating 
reply,  offering  McGillivray  a  fine  gun  and  a 
lot  in  Nashville,  Robertson  throws  out  the  fol- 
lowing broad  suggestion,  which  he  obviously 
wishes  McGillivray  to  convey  to  Miro:  "In 
all  probability  we  cannot  long  remain  in  our 
present  state,  and  if  the  British  or  any  com- 
mercial nation  who  may  be  in  possession  of  the 

&4>2 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

mouth  of  the  Mississippi  would  furnish  us  with 
trade,  and  receive  our  produce  there  cannot 
be  a  doubt  but  the  people  on  the  west  side  of 
the  Appalachian  mountains  will  open  their 
eyes  to  theii:  real  interest."  Robertson  actu- 
ally had  the  district  erected  out  of  the  coun- 
ties of  Davidson,  Sumner,  and  Tennessee 
given  the  name  of  "Miro"  by  the  Assembly 
of  North  Carolina  in  November,  1788 — a  sig- 
nificant symbol  of  the  desires  of  the  Cumber- 
land leaders.  In  a  letter  (April  23,  1789), 
Miro,  who  had  just  received  letters  from  Rob- 
ertson (January  29th)  and  Daniel  Smith 
(March  4th)  postmarked  "District  of  Miro," 
observes:  "The  bearer.  Fagot,  a  confidential 
agent  of  Gen.  Smith,  informed  me  that  the 
inhabitants  of  Cumberland,  or  Miro,  would  ask 
North  Carolina  for  an  act  of  separation  the 
following  fall,  and  that  as  soon  as  this  should 
be  obtained  other  delegates  would  be  sent  from 
Cumberland  to  New  Orleans,  with  the  object 
of  placing  that  territory  under  the  domina- 
tion of  His  Majesty.  I  replied  to  both  in 
general  teiTns."  ^^^ 

MS 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Robertson,  Bledsoe,  and  Smith  were  success- 
ful in  keeping  secret  their  correspondence  with 
McGillivray  and  Miro;  and  few  were  in  the 
secret  of  Sevier's  effort  to  deliver  the  State 
of  Franklin  to  Spain.  Joseph  Martin  was 
less  successful  in  his  negotiations;  and  a  great 
sensation  was  created  throughout  the  Southern 
colonies  when  a  private  letter  from  Joseph 
Martin  to  McGillivray  (November  8,  1788) 
was  intercepted.  In  this  letter  Martin  said: 
"I  must  beg  that  you  write  me  by  the  first 
opportunity  in  answer  to  what  I  am  now  go- 
ing to  say  to  you.  ...  I  hope  to  do  honor  to 
any  part  of  the  world  I  settle  in,  and  am  de- 
termined to  leave  the  United  States,  for  rea- 
sons that  I  can  assign  to  you  when  we  meet, 
but  durst  not  trust  it  to  paper."  The  general 
assembly  of  Georgia  referred  the  question  of 
the  intercepted  letter  to  the  governor  of  North 
Carolina  (January  24,  1789)  ;  and  the  result 
was  a  legislative  investigation  into  Martin's 
conduct.  Eleven  months  later,  the  North 
Carolina  assembly  exonerated  him.  From  the 
correspondence  of  Joseph  Martin  and  Patrick 

344 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

Henry,  it  would  appear  that  Martin,  on 
Henry's  advice,  had  acted  as  a  spy  upon  the 
Spaniards,  in  order  to  discover  the  views  of 
McGillivray,  to  protect  the  exposed  white 
settlements  from  the  Indians,  and  to  fathom 
the  designs  of  the  Spaniards  against  the  United 
States.^^« 

The  sensational  disclosures  of  Martin's  in- 
tercepted letter  had  no  deterrent  effect  upon 
James  Robertson  in  the  attempted  execution 
of  his  plan  for  detaching  the  Cumberland 
settlements  from  North  Carolina.  History 
has  taken  no  account  of  the  fact  that  Robert- 
son and  the  inhabitants  now  deliberately  en- 
deavored to  secure  an  act  of  separation  from 
North  Carolina.  In  the  event  of  success,  the 
next  move  planned  by  the  Cumberland  leaders, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  Kvas  to  send  delegates 
to  New  Orleans  for  the  purpose  of  placing  the 
Cumberland  region  under  the  domination  of 
Spain. 

A  hitherto  unknown  letter,  from  Robert- 
son to  (Miro),  dated  Nashville,  September  2, 
1789,  proves  that  a  convention  of  the  people 

345 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

was  actually  held — the  first  overt  step  looking 
to  an  alliance  with  Spain.  In  this  letter  Rob- 
ertson says: 

I  must  beg  your  Excellency's  permission 
to  take  this  early  opportunity  of  thanking  you 
for  the  honor  you  did  me  in  writing  by  Mr. 
White. 

I  still  hope  that  your  Government,  and  these 
Settlements,  are  destined  to  be  mutually 
friendly  and  usefull,  the  people  here  are  im- 
pressed with  the  necessity  of  it. 

We  have  just  held  a  Convention;  which  has 
agreed  that  our  members  shall  insist  on  being 
Seperated  from  North  Carolina. 

Unprotected,  we  are  to  be  obedient  to  the 
new  Congress  of  the  United  States;  but  we 
cannot  but  wish  for  a  more  interesting  Con- 
nection. 

The  United  States  afford  us  no  protection. 
The  district  of  Miro  is  daily  plundered  and 
the  inhabitants  murdered  by  the  Creeks,  and 
Cherokees,  unprovoked. 

For  my  own  part,  I  conceive  highly  of  the 
advantages  of  your  Government.^^^ 

A  serious  obstacle  to  the  execution  of  the 
plans  of  Robertson  and  the  other  leaders  of 
the  Cumberland  settlements  was  the  prompt 

346 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

action  of  North  Carolina.  In  actual  conform- 
ity with  the  wishes  of  the  AVestem  people,  as 
set  forth  in  the  petition  of  Robertson  and 
Hayes,  their  representatives,  made  two  years 
earlier,^  ^^  the  legislature  of  North  Carolina  in 
December  passed  the  second  act  of  cession,  by 
which  the  Western  territory  of  North  Carolina 
was  ceded  to  the  United  States.  Instead  of 
securing  an  act  of  separation  from  North 
Carolina  as  the  preparatory  step  to  forming 
what  Robertson  calls  "a  more  interesting  con- 
nection" with  Spain,  Robertson  and  his  asso- 
ciates now  found  themselves  and  the  transmon- 
tane  region  which  they  represented  flung 
bodily  into  the  arms  of  the  United  States. 
Despite  the  unequivocal  offer  of  the  calculat- 
ing and  desperate  Sevier  to  "deliver"  Frank- 
lin to  Spain,  and  the  ingenious  efforts  of  Rob- 
ertson and  his  associates  to  place  the  Cumber- 
land region  under  the  domination  of  Spain, 
the  Spanish  court  by  its  temporizing  policy  of 
evasion  and  indecision  definitely  relinquished 
the  ready  opportunities  thereby  afforded,  of 
utilizing  the  powerful  separatist  tendencies  of 

347 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  THE  OLD  SOUTHWEST 

Tennessee  for  the  purpose  of  adding  the  em- 
pire upon  the  Western  waters  to  the  Spanish 
domain  in  America. 

The  year  1790  marks  the  end  of  an  era — 
the  heroic  age  of  the  pioneers  of  the  Old  South- 
west. Following  the  acceptance  of  North 
Carolina's  deed  of  cession  of  her  Western  lands 
to  the  Union  (April  2,  1790)  the  Southwest 
Territory  was  erected  on  May  26th ;  and  Wil- 
liam Blount,  a  North  Carolina  gentleman  of 
eminence  and  distinction,  was  appointed  on 
June  8th  to  the  post  of  governor  of  the  terri- 
tory. Two  years  later  (June  1,  1792)  Ken- 
tucky was  admitted  into  the  Union* 

It  is  a  remarkable  and  inspiring  circum- 
stance, in  testimony  of  the  martial  instincts 
and  unwavering  loyalty  of  the  transmontane 
people,  that  the  two  men  to  whom  the  Western 
country  in  great  measure  owed  its  preservation, 
the  inciting  and  flaming  spirits  of  the  King's 
Mountain  campaign,  were  the  unopposed  first 
choice  of  the  people  as  leaders  in  the  trying  ex- 
periment of  Statehood — John  Sevier  of  Ten- 
nessee and  Isaac  Shelby  of  Kentucky.     Had 

348 


THE  LURE  OF  SPAIN 

Franklin  possessed  the  patient  will  of  Ken- 
tucky, she  might  well  have  preceded  that  region 
into  the  Union.  It  was  not,  however,  until 
June  1,  1796,  that  Tennessee,  after  a  romantic 
and  arduous  struggle,  finally  passed  through 
the  wide-flung  portals  into  the  domain  of 
national  statehood. 


349 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

1  Roosevelt's  The  Winning  of  the  West,  a  stirring  recital 
with  chief  stress  thrown  upon  the  militant  characteristics  of 
the  frontiersmen,  is  open  to  grave  criticism  because  of  failure 
to  give  adequate  account  of  social  and  economic  tendencies, 
the  development  of  democracy,  and  the  evolution  of  govern- 
ment under  the  pressure  of  frontier  conditions. 

2  Johnson  MSS.,  xu.  No.  127. 

^Journal  of  a  Tour  in  Unsettled  Parts  of  North  America 
in  1796  and  1797,  217. 

4  Turner:  "Significance  of  the  Frontier  in  American  His- 
tory," American  Historical  Association  Report,  1893. 

5  Hugh  Williamson:  History  of  North  Carolina  (1812),  ii, 
71-2. 

6  Virginia  Historical  Magazine,  xiii,  133;  WilHam  and  Mary 
Quarterly,   ix,    132. 

7  Virginia  Historical  Magazine,  op.  cit.  Cf.  also  West  Vir- 
ginia  Historical   Magazine,    April,    1903. 

sBernheim:  The  German  Element  and  the  Lutheran  Church 
in    the    CaroUnas. 

9  For  this  and  other  Moravian  diaries,  see  Virginia  Historical 
Magazine,  vols,  xi  and  xii. 

10  Original  diary  in  German  in  Archives  of  the  Moravian 
Church,  Winston-Salem,  N.  C.  Cf.  Mereness,  Travels  in  the 
American  Colonies  1690-17 S3,  327-356. 

11  Cf.  original  minutes  of  Abington  and  Gwynedd  Monthly 
Meetings,   Pa. 

12  MS.  History  of  Bryan  family,  compiled  by  Col.  W.  L. 
Bryan,   Boone,   N.  C. 

13  Ely:  The  Finleys  of  Bucks  (Publications,  Bucks  County 
Historical  Society) ;  also  "Historic  Associations  of  Neshaminy 
Valley,"  Daily  Intelligencer  (Reading,  Pa.),  July  29,  1913. 
See  also  Wisconsin  State  Historical  Society,  Draper  MSS., 
3  B  161. 

351 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

14  "The  Creative  Forces  in  Westward  Expansion,"  American 
Historical  Review,  xx,  1. 

15  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vii,  100-101. 
"i-^  Magazine  of  American  History,  November,  1881. 

17  F,oote:     Sketches  of  North  Carolina,  xiii. 

18  Howe:  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  South 
Carolina. 

19  Virginia  Historical  Magazine,  xiii,  127-8-9. 

20  Draper:  MS.  Life  of  Boone;  Draper  Collection,  "Wisconsin 
State  Historical  Society. 

21  Rowan  County  Records,  Salisbury,  N.  C. 

22  Rumple:     History  of  Rowan  County. 

23  Logan:     History  of  Upper  South  Carolina. 

24  "Diary  of  Bishop  Spangenberg"  (1T52),  North  Carolina 
Colonial   Records,   v. 

25  Sheets:     History  of  Liberty  Baptist  Association. 

26  Moravian  Community  Diary,  preserved  at  Winston-Salem, 
N.  C. 

25'  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v,  6. 

28  J.  F,  D.  Smyth:  A  Tour  in  the  United  States  of  America 
(London:  1784),  vol.  1.     Chapter  xxiii. 

29  Unpublished  MS.:     "In  the  Olden  Time." 
soMargry:     Navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  iv,  322. 

31  Raunie:  Chansonnier  historique  du  xviii^  sidcle,  iii,  132-3. 
This  translation  is  by  Barbara  Henderson. 

32  J.  Haywood :  Natural  and  A  boriginal  History  of  Tennes- 
see (1823),  233. 

33Byrd:     History  of  the  Dividing  Line. 

34  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v,  25. 

35  D.  D.  WMlace:  The  Life  of  Henry  Laurens,  Appen- 
dix iv. 

36  See  also  Hewit  in  Carroll's  Collections,  i,  435.  Fort  Prince 
George  was  located  in  the  fork  of  the  Six  Mile  Creek  and 
Keowee  River,  in  the  southwestern  part  of  Pickens  County, 
and  was  completed  probably  by  the  end  of  1753  (South 
Carolina  Gazette,  December  17,  1753). 

37  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v,  140. 

38  Cited  in  Channing,  History  of  the  United  States,  ii,  5^73  n. 

39  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v,  333,  357. 

352 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

*o  Moravian  Community  Diary. 

*i  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v,  849. 

42  Virginia  Historical  Magazine,  xili,  225-264'.  North  Caro- 
lina Colonial  Records,  v,  560,  617. 

43  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v,  579. 

44  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v,  641,  742,  849.  Cf.  also 
Hunter:    Sketches  of  Western  North  Carolina,  325. 

45  North  CaroUna  Colonial  Records,  v,  604,  639. 

46  Virginia  Historical  Magazine,  xiii,  263;  North  Carolina 
Colonial  Records,  v,  606,  609,  613. 

*"  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v,  585,  612-4,  635,  637. 

*^  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v,  610;  Cf.  Timberlake's 
"A  Drauglit  of  the  Cherokee  Country"  in  Avery's  History  of 
the  United  States,  iv,  facing  p.  347;  Ramsey,  History  of  Ten- 
nessee, 57. 

49  Summers:    Southwest  Virginia,  57-60. 

50  Virginia  Historical  Magazine,  xv,  254-7;  Waddell,  Augusta 
County   (second  edition),  115-6,  150-1. 

51  North  CaroUna  Colonial  Records,  v,  606-8. 

52  Summers:     Southwest  Virginia,  60-1. 

53  Williamson:     History  of  North  Carolina,  ii,  37,  footnote. 
^*  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  viii,  563;  xi,  map  facing 

p.  80,  and  p.  227. 

55  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  v.  Introduction,  pp.  xxx- 
xxxi. 

56  Carroll's  Collections,  i,  433;  ii,  519-20;  Draper's  MS.  Life 
of  Boone,  iii,  65-6. 

57  Sparks:     Washington,  ii,  322. 

58  Journal:  "Concerning  a  March  that  Capt.  Robt.  Wade 
took  to  the  New  River,"  in  Summers,  Southwest  Virginia. 
62-66. 

59  Carroll's  Collections,  i,  443-4. 

CO  South  Carolina  Gazette,  May  12,  1759. 
01  South  Carolina  Gazette,  July  14,  1759. 

62  South  Carolina  Gazette,  Aug.  4,   Sept.  22,  1759. 

63  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vi,  221. 
84  Draper:    MS.  Life  of  Boone,  iii,  75. 

65  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vi,  229-230. 

66  For  a  full  account  of  the  part  which  Fort  Dobbs  played 

353 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

in  this  Indian  warfare  see  the  monograph,  Fort  Dobbs,  by 
Mrs.  M.  H.  Eliason. 

^''Maryland  Gazette,  May  8,  1760;  Haywood:  Natural  and 
Aboriginal  History  of  Tennessee,  239-40;  North  Carolina  Co- 
lonial Records,  xxii,  S23. 

68  "Notes  on  the  Indians  and  the  Early  Settlers  of  Western 
North  Carolina,"  Collections  of  the  North  Carolina  Historical 
Commission.  Printed  in  Papers  of  A.  D.  Murphy,  ii,  380 
et  seq. 

'i^  Maryland  Gazette,  May  8,  1760. 

■TO  South  Carolina  Gazette,  Dec.  23,  1760;  Feb.  28,  April  11, 
1761. 

71  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vi,  622. 

72  J.  S.  Johnston:  The  First  Explorations  of  Kentucky. 
Filson  Club  Publications,  No.  13. 

73  William  and  Mary  College  Quarterly,  xii,  129-134;  Young: 
Genealogical  Narrative  of  the  Hart  Family  (1882);  Nash: 
"History  of  Orange  County,"  North  Carolina  Booklet;  Hender- 
son: "A  Federalist  of  the  Old  School,"  North  Carolina  Booklet. 

74  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  ix,  349. 

75  Turner:  "The  Old  West,"  Wisconsin  Historical  Society 
Proceedings,  1908. 

7G  Cf.  "Memoir  of  Pleasant  Henderson,"  Draper  MSS.  2CC21- 
23;  W.  H.  Battle:  "A  Memoir  of  Leonard  Henderson,"  North 
Carolina  Univers^ity  Magazine,  Nov.,  1859;  T.  B.  Kingsbury: 
"Chief  Justice  Leonard  Henderson,"  Wake  Forest  Student, 
November,   1898. 

77  "The  Life  and  Times  of  Richard  Henderson,"  in  the 
Charlotte  Observer,  March  9  to  June  1,  1913;  Draper's  MS. 
Life  of  Boone;  Morehead's  Address  at  Boonesborough,  105  n. 

78  C.  W.  Alvord:  "The  Genesis  of  the  Proclamation  of 
1763,"   Michigan  Pioneer  and  Historical  Collections,  xxxvi. 

79  Sparks:     Works  of  Franklin  (1844),  iii,  69-77. 

80  J,  M.  Peck  to  L.  C.  Draper,  May  15,  1854. 

81  Washington  to  Crawford,  September  21,  1767,  in  Sparks: 
Life  and  Writings  of  Washington,  ii,  346-50. 

82  Haywood:  Civil  and  Political  History  of  Tennessee 
(1823),  35. 

83  Ramsey:    Annals  of  Tennessee  (1853),  69-70. 

354 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

84  Ramsey:    Annals  of  Tennessee,  69. 

85  Cf.  C.  W.  Alvord:  "The  British  Ministry  and  the  Treaty 
of  Fort  Stanwbc,"  Wisconsin  Historical  Society  Proceedings, 
1908. 

86  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vii,  851-855.  For  Try- 
on's  line,  ibid.,  245,  460,  470,  508. 

87  Johnson  to  Gage,  December  16,  1768. 

88  Jefferson  MSS.  Department  of  state.  Cf.  also  Weeks: 
General  Joseph  Martin. 

89Hanna:  The  Wilderness  Trail,  ii,  216,  230,  255;  Darling- 
ton:   Journals  of  Gist,  131. 

00  "Narrative  of  General  William  Hall,"  Draper  MSS.,  Wis- 
consin State  Historical  Society. 

01  Draper:    MS.  Life  of  Boone,  viii,  238. 

02  Summers:    Southwest  Virginia,  76. 
9^  Papers  of  A.  D.  Murphy,  ii,  386. 

04  Pennsylvania  Journal,  October  29,  1769. 

85  Compare  "John  Finley;  and  Kentucky  before  Boone," 
being  chapter  seven  in  volume  two  of  C.  A.  Hanna's  The  Wil- 
derness Trail  (1911). 

06  J.  W.  Monette:  History  of  the  Discovery  and  Settle- 
ment of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi  (1846),  ii,  53. 

OT  Court  Records  of  Rowan  County. 

88  Cf.  "The  Pioneers  of  the  West"  in  Missouri  Republican 
(1847).     Cf.  also  Putnam:     Middle  Tennessee,  20. 

88  J,  M.  Peck  to  L.  C.  Draper,  May  15,  1854. 

^00  Missouri  Republican  (1847). 

101^  Memorial  to  the  Legislature  of  Kentucky  (1812). 

102  Deposition  Book  No.  1,  p.  156,  Clark  County  Court,  Ken- 
tucky. 

103  Cf.  "Daniel  Boone  and  the  Wilderness  Trail,"  Bristol 
(Tennessee- Virginia)  Herald  Courier,  Boone  Trail  Edition, 
April,  1917. 

104  Hall:  The  Romance  of  Western  History  (1857),  150-1, 
158-9. 

105  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vii,  713. 
100  Martin:     History  of  North  Carolina,  ii,  191. 

107  "The  Origin  of  the  Regulation  in  North  Carolina,"  Amer- 
ican Historical  Review,  xxi,  No.  2. 

108  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vii,  14-31,  32-4,  37. 

355 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

109  Raleigh  (N.  C.)  Register,  June  2,  1825. 

110  Cf.  Tryon's  Journal,  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vii, 
819-838. 

111  Tryon  to  Hillsborough,  December  24,  1768. 

112  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  viii,  231-4. 

113  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  viii,  241-244. 

114  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  viii,  241-244. 

115  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  viii,  236-240. 

iieCf.  J.  S,  Bassett.:  "The  Regulators  of  North  Carolina 
(1765-1771)",  American  Historical  Association  Report  for 
1894. 

117  iVor^ft  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  x,  1019-1022;  Caruth- 
ers:    Life  of  Caldwell,  145-158. 

118  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  vi,  250. 

119  Alderman:  "The  Baptists  at  the  Forks  of  the  Yadkin," 
in  Baptist  Historical  Papers. 

120  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  viii,  70-80. 

121  The  discovery  of  an  immense  quantity  of  contemporary 
documents,  since  Roosevelt's  The  Winning  of  the  West  was 
vi'ritten,  betrays  the  numerous  inaccuracies  of  that  fascinating 
work,  as  well  as  the  imperfect  perspective  in  the  picture  of 
the  westward  expansionist  movement.  Mr.  Roosevelt's  virile 
apotheosis  of  the  strenuous  pioneer  seems  today  almost  as 
old-fashioned  in  its  method  and  outlook  as  is  Draper's  work 
on   King's  Mountain. 

122  Bancroft  Transcripts,  Library  of  Congress. 

123  Purefoy:  History  of  Sandy  Creek  Baptist  Association 
(1859). 

124  Cf.  "Pioneer  Contributions  of  N,orth  Carolina  to  Ken- 
tucky," Charlotte  (iV.  C.)  Observer,  November  10,  1913. 

125  Summers:     Southwest   Virginia,  616-8. 

\26  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  xiv,  314.  Cf.  Farrand: 
"The  Indian  Boundary  Line,"  American  Historical  Review,  x. 

127  Dunmore  to  Hillsborough,  March,  1772.  Cf.  also  Draper, 
MS.  Life  of  Boone,  Draper  MSS.,  3  B  87,  88. 

128  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  x,  885-6. 

129  Moses  Fisk:  "A  Summary  Notice  of  the  First  Settle- 
ments made  by  White  People  within  the  Limits  which  Bound  the 

356 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

State  of  Tennessee,"  in  Massachtisetts  Historical  Collectiona, 
1st  series   (1816). 

180  Dunmore  to  Dartmouth,  May  16,  1774. 

131  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  ix,  825-6,  982.  MS. 
Copy  in  Minutes  of  (Council,  Public  Record  Office,  Colonial  Of- 
fice, 5:355. 

132  Haywood:  Civil  and  Political  History  of  Tennessee 
(1823),  40. 

133  Butler:  History  of  Kentucky  (1836),  p.  Ixvii,  note.  Also 
Draper  MSS.,  2  CC  34. 

134  Wharton:     Plain  Facts  (1781),  9. 

135  Alvord:     The  Illinois-W abash  Land  Company  Manuscript. 

136  A  copy  of  the  opinion,  bearing  this  date,  is  in  the  Hen- 
derson papers.  Draper  collection,  Wisconsin  Historical  Society. 

137  Extended  investigation  establishes  beyond  question  that 
Judge  Henderson  was  proceeding  in  strict  accordance  with 
law  in  seeking  to  acquire  title  by  purchase  from  the  Cherokees 
instead  of  applying  to  the  royal  government  for  a  grant. 
When  Virginia's  sea-to-sea  charter  was  abrogated  in  1624, 
Virginia  became  a  royal  province  and  the  settlement  of  bound- 
aries a  royal  prerogative.  Of  the  three  presumed  Indian 
claimants  to  the  trans- Alleghany  region,  viz.,  the  Iroquois, 
Shawanoes,  and  Cherokees,  the  Iroquois  by  defeating  the 
Shawanoes  and  their  confederates  in  the  Ohio  Valley  at  the 
battle  of  Sandy  Island  in  1672  acquired  title,  as  understood 
by  the  Indians,  to  this  region.  By  the  treaties  of  Lancaster 
(1744),  Loggstown  (1752),  and  Fort  Stanwix  (1768),  the 
claims  of  the  Shawanoes  and  the  Iroquois  to  the  trans- 
AUeghany  territory  were  ceded  to  the  crown.  While  the 
Shawanoes  and  tlie  Cherokees  acquiesced  in  the  Treaty  of 
Fort  Stanwix,  the  crown  fully  acknowledged  the  claim  of 
the  Cherokees  to  the  trans- Alleghany  region;  and  by  the 
treaties  of  Hard  Labor  (1768)  and  Lochaber  (1770)  con- 
firmed them  in  possession  of  this  region  to  the  west  of  the 
boundary  line  (See  Chapter  XII).  The  .sovereignty  of  Eng- 
land extended  over  this  territory,  the  right  of  eminent  domain 
being  vested  in  the  crown.  Henderson  was  legally  justified 
in   disregarding   the   royal   proclamation   of    1763   which    was 

367 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

largely  in  the  nature  of  a  temporary  expedient,  and  in  pur- 
chasing the  title  to  the  trans-AUeghany  region  from  the 
Cherokees  in  1775.  The  right  of  eminent  domain  over  the 
trans-Alleghany  region  still  vested  in  the  crown  after  the  treaty 
of  Sycamore  Shoals. 

138  MS.  Journals  of  James  and  Robert  McAfee.  Durrett 
Collection,  University  of  Chicago.  These  journals  are  printed 
in  Woods-McAfee  Memorial. 

139  Hening:     Virginia  Statutes  at  Large,  x,  558. 

140  Wharton:     Plain  Facts,  96  et  seq.     See  also  text  fP. 
i*iAlvord:     The    Mississippi    Valley   in   British   Politics,   ii, 

ch.  7;  Cotterill:    History  of  Pioneer  Kentucky,  65-66. 

142  T.  Wharton  to  Walpole,  September  23,  1774,  in  "Letter 
Book  of  Thomas  Wharton,"  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History 
and  Biography,  xxxiii  (October,  1909). 

143  For  ample  materials,  cf.  Thwaites  and  Kellogg:  Docu- 
mentary History  of  Dunmore'a  War — 1774- 

144  Cf.  "The  Inauguration  of  Westward  Expansion,"  Newg 
and  Observer    (Raleigh,   N.   C.)    July  5,   1914. 

1*5  Letter  of  Major  Pleasant  Henderson,  in  The  Harbinger 
(Chapel  Hill,  N.  C),  1834. 

146  Cf.  "The  Beginnings  of  Westward  Expansion,"  North 
Carolina  Review,  September  and  October,  1910. 

14T  Draper  MSS.  1  CC  2-9,  Wisconsin  State  Historical  So- 
ciety. 

148  Jefferson  MSS.  5th  Series,  v.  8.  In  MSS.  Division,  Li- 
brary of  Congress. 

149  Draper  MSS.  1  CC  2-9. 

150  Diary  of  Morgan  Brown  in  Tennessee  Historical  Maga- 
zine. 

151  Enclosure  6  in  Dunmore  to  Dartmouth,  No.  25,  March 
14,   1775,  Public  Record  Office,  Colonial  Office,  5:1353. 

152  North  Carolina  Colonial  Records,  ix,  1117,  11.29-1131, 

153  Draper  MSS.  4  QQ  1. 

154  Virginia  Historical  Magazine,  viii,  355.  Cf.  also  Draper 
MSS.  2  CC  5. 

155  Letters  to  Washington,  MSS.  Division,  Library  of  Con- 
gress. 

156  I  am  indebted  to  Miss  Lucretia  Hart  Clay  for  the  privi- 

358 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

lege  of  examining  the  extensive  collection  of  Hart  and  Benton 
MSS.  in  her  possession. 

157  The  voluminous  records  of  the  treaty  are  found  in  the 
JefiFerson  MSS.,  vol.  5.    MSS.  Division,  Library  of  Congress. 

158  "Narrative  of  Felix  Walker,"  Original  MS.  owned  by 
C.  L.  Walker. 

159  Hulbert:    Boone's  Road. 

160  Original  of  Henderson's  Journal  is  in  Draper  MSS.,  1 
CC  21-130  A.D. 

161  Hall:    Sketches  of  the  West,  i,  254-^. 

162  This  quotation  is  taken  from  the  original  manuscript. 
The  version  in  De  Bow's  Review,  1854,  is  imperfect.  For 
better  printed  versions  of  Walker's  two  accounts,  see  Memoirs 
of  Felix  Walker,  New  Orleans  (1877),  and  Journal  of  Ameri- 
can History,  i,  No.  1  (1907). 

163  Original  journal  of  William  Calk,  owned  by  Mrs.  Price 
Calk. 

164  Letters  to  Washington,  MSS.  Division,  Library  of  Con- 
gress. 

165  North  Carolina  Gazette. 

166  Draper  MSS.,  1  CC  160-194,  deposition  of  Arthur  Camp- 
bell. 

167  Draper  MSS.,  1  CC  160-194,  deposition  of  Arthur  Camp- 
bell. 

168  Draper  Collection,  Kentucky  MSS.,  ii.  For  a  contrary 
view,  cf.  P.  Henry's  deposition,  Kentucky  MSS.,  i. 

169  Published  in  Virginia  Gazette,  March  23,  1775.  Cf. 
"Forerunners  of  the  Republic",  Neale's  Monthly,  January- 
June,  1913. 

170  Draper  MSS.,  4  QQ  17. 

171  Letters  to  George  Washington,  MSS.  Division,  Library 
of  Congress. 

172  Draper  MSS.,  1  L  20. 

173  Henderson  and  Luttrell  to  the  Proprietors,  July  18,  1775; 
printed  in  Louisville  News-Letter,  May  9,  1840. 

174  Nathaniel  Henderson  to  John  Williams,  October  5,  1775. 
Copy  supplied  by  heirs  of  B.  J.  Lossing. 

175  "The  Struggle  for  the  Fourteenth  American  Colony," 
News  and  Observer  (Raleigh,  N.  C),  May  19,  1918. 

359 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

176  In  connection  with  Transylvania,  consult  G.  W.  Ranck: 
Boonesborouyh:  Filson  Club  Publications,  No.  16;  F.  J.  Turner.- 
"State  Making'  in  the  Revolutionary  Era",  American  His- 
torical Review,  i;  G.  H.  Alden:  "New  Governments  West 
of  the  AUeghanies  before  1780." 

177  In  a  "Proposal  for  the  Sale  of  its  Lands"  {Virginia 
Gazette,  Sept.  30,  1775),  the  Transylvania  Company  offered 
to  any  settlers  before  June  1,  1776,  land,  limited  in  amount, 
at  the  rate  of  fifty  shillings  sterling  per  hundred  acres,  subject 
to  an  annual  quit-rent  of  two  shillings.     Cf.  facsimile. 

178  Draper  MSS.,  2  CC  25. 

179  These  increased  rates  were  voted  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Proprietors  of  Transylvania  at  Oxford,  N.  C,  September  25, 
1775.     American  Archives,  iv. 

180  Draper  MSS.,  47  J  1.  This  memoir  has  often  been 
printed. 

181  Cf.  for  example,  Mason  to  Washington,  March  9,  1775, 
in  Letters  to  Washington,  MSS.  Division,  Library  of  Congress. 

182  I,etter  of  date  May  19,  1776.     Draper  MSS.,  33  S  292-295. 

183  Original  in  Virginia  State  Archives. 

184  Original  in  Virginia  State  Archives.  This  and  the  afore- 
mentioned petition  are  printed  in  the  Vii-ffinia  Historical 
Magazine,  xvi,  157-163.  See  also  J.  R.  Robertson:  Petitions 
of  the  Early  Inhabitants  of  Kentucky,  Filson  Club  Publi- 
cations, No.  27. 

185  Cf .  "Richard  Henderson  and  the  Occupation  of  Ken- 
tuckj',  1775,"  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review,  December, 
1914.     Also  A.  B.  Hulbert:     Pilots  of  the  Republic. 

186  Original  in  North  Carolina  State  Archives.  Printed  in 
Ramsey:    Annals  of  Tennessee  (1853),  134-138. 

187  Haldimand  MSS. 

188  Original  in  Draper  MSS.  Collections.  It  has  recently  been 
printed  in  Colonial  Men  and  Times  (1915),  by  Lillie  Du  P. 
Van  C.  Harper. 

189  Haywood:  Civil  and  Political  History  of  Tennessee, 
(1823),  Appendix,  500-503. 

^so  Journal  Virginia  House  of  Delegates,  Nov.  4^17,  1778. 
191  Hening:     Statutes  at  Large,  ix,  571.     Cf.  also  Starling: 
History  of  Henderson  County,  Kentucky. 

360 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

102  Cf.  Sioussat:  "The  Journal  of  Daniel  Smith,"  Tennessee 
Historical  Magazine,  March,   1915. 

li's  The  original  journal  is  in  the  archives  of  the  Tennessee 
State  Historical  Society. 

194  N.  Hart,  Jr.,  to  Wilkins  Tannehill,  April  27,  1839,  in 
Louisville  News-Letter,  May  23,  1840. 

195  The  original  document  is  preserved  in  the  archives  of 
the  Tennessee  Historical  Society.  It  is  printed,  with  a  number 
of  minor  inaccuracies,  in  Putnam:     Middle  Tennessee,  94-102. 

196  Acts  of  North  Carolina,  1783,  ch.  xxxviii.  North  Carolina 
State  Records,  xxiv,  530-531. 

107  For  a  more  extended  treatment  of  the  subjects  dealt  with 
in  the  present  chapter,  see  "Richard  Henderson,  the  Author- 
ship of  the  Cumberland  Compact,  and  the  Founding  of 
Nashville,"  Tennessee  Historical  Magazine,  September,  1916. 

108  "Isaac  Shelby,  Revolutionary  Patriot  and  Border  Hero," 
in  North  Carolina  Booklet,  xvi,  No.  3,  109-144. 

199  While  Draper's  King's  Mountain  and  its  Heroes  is  most 
valuable  as  a  source  book,  it  is  very  faulty  in  style  and  arrange- 
ment. The  account  of  the  battle,  in  particular,  is  deficient  in 
perspective;  and  in  general  no  clear  line  is  drawn  between  tra- 
ditionary and  authentic  testimony. 

200  F.  B.  McDowell:  The  Battle  of  King's  Mountain  (Ral- 
eigh, 1907).  This  account  was  prepared  chiefly  from  unpub- 
lished letters  from  Isaac  Shelby  to  Franklin  Brevard. 

201 A  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Career  of  Colonel  James  D. 
Williams,  by  Rev.  J.  D.  Bailey  (Gowpens,  S.  C,  1898). 

202  A  valuable  source  is  the  King's  Mountain  Expedition,  by 
David  Vance  and  Robert  Henry,  edited  by  D.  L.  Schenck 
(Greensboro,  1891). 

203  Cf.  Acts  of  North  Carolina,  1784,  April  Session,  Chapters 
XI  and  XII. 

204  Sioussat:  "The  North  Carolina  Cession  of  1784  in  its 
F'ederal  Aspects,"  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association 
Proceedings,  ii. 

205  Quoted  in  Alden:  "The  State  of  Franklin,"  American 
Historical  Review,  viii. 

206  See  Charlotte  (N.  C.)  Observer,  September  25,  1904.  Also 
consult  North  Carolina  State  Records,  xxii,  664  ff. 

S61 


LIST  OF  NOTES 

2or  State  Archives  of  North  Carolina. 

208  pcnnsylvatiia  Packet,  August  9,  1785. 

209  State  Department  MSS.,  Library  of  Congress. 

210  A  single  complete  draft,  in  pamphlet  form,  printed  in 
1786,  is  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the  Tennessee  Historical 
Society.  Cf.  "The  Provisional  Constitution  of  Frankland," 
American  Historical  Magazine,  i. 

211  Franklin  Papers,  vii,  folio  1651.  MSS.  Division,  Library 
of  Congress. 

212  Franklin  Papers,  viii,  folio  1803.  MSS.  Division,  Library 
of  Congress. 

213  For  a  more  extended  treatment  of  matters  dealt  with  in 
this  chapter,  compare  "The  Spanish  Conspiracy  in  Tennessee," 
Tennessee  Historical  Magazine,  December,  1917. 

214  Gardoqui  to  Floridablanca,  April  18,  1788. 

215  On  April  30th  Miro  wrote  to  Valdez,  in  Spain,  informing 
him  of  the  proposals  received  through  McGillivray  and  stat- 
ing that  he  had  returned  conciliatory  replies  but  had  refrained 
from  committing  the  Spanish  Government  until  the  pleasure 
of  the  king  should  be  known. 

216  W.  \V.  Henry:  Life,  Correspondence  and  Speeches  of 
Patrick  Henry,  iii,  409,  412-5. 

217  Archives  of  the  Indies,  Seville,  Spain. 

218  Ramsey:    Annals  of  Tennessee  (1853),  502-3. 


36S 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

For  the  entire  period  (1740-1790)  covered  by 
this  volume,  an  exceptionally  rich  store  of  mate- 
rials is  to  be  found  in  the  Colonial  Records  of  North 
Carolina,  1662-1775  (published  1886-1890),  and 
its  continuation,  the  State  Records  of  North  Caro- 
lina, 1776-1790  (published  1895-1905),  thirty 
volumes  in  all,  including  the-  four  volumes  of  index. 
The  introductions  and  supplementary  matter  in 
these  volumes  constitute  a  survey  of  the  period. 
Theodore  Roosevelt's  The  Winning  of  the  West 
(1889-1896;  various  editions),  a  vigorous  and 
stirring  narrative,  over-accentuates  the  strenuous 
life,  largely  underemphasises  economic  and  govern- 
mental phases,  and  is  by  no  means  free  from  error. 

For  the  Scotch-Irish  migrations  one  should  read 
C.  A.  Hanna,  The  Scotch-Irish  (2  vols.,  1902),  a 
large  collection  of  original  materials,  imperfectly 
coordinated;  and  the  excellent  historical  sketch  by 
H.  J.  Ford,  The  Scotch-Irish  in  America  (1905). 
For  the  German  migrations,  adequate  and  readable 
accounts  are  A.  B.  Faust,  The  German  Element  in 
the  United  States  (2  vols.,  1909);  J.  H,  Clewell, 
History  of  Wachovia  in  North  Carolina  (1902); 
J.    W.    Wayland,    The    German    Element    of    the 

363 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

Shenandoah  Valley  of  Virginia  (1907);  and  G.  D. 
Bernheim,  History  of  the  German  Settlements  and 
of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  North  and  South 
Carolina  (1872). 

The  best  original  sources  for  the  life  of  the  people 
in  this  period  are:  the  State  Archives  of  North 
Carolina  at  Raleigh,  scientifically  ordered  and 
accessible  to  collectors ;  the  Lyman  C.  Draper  Col- 
lection at  Madison,  Wisconsin;  the  Reuben  T. 
Durrett  Collection  at  the  University  of  Chicago ; 
the  State  Archives  of  South  Carolina,  especially 
rich  in  collections  of  contemporary  newspapers;  the 
collections  of  the  North  Carolina  Historical  Society 
at  Chapel  Hill;  and  the  Archives  of  the  Moravian 
Church,  in  Pennsylvania  and  at  Winston-Salem, 
North  Carolina.  The  State  Archives  of  Virginia, 
an  unexplored  mine  of  great  riches,  are  as  yet  in- 
accessible, properly  speaking,  to  investigators.  The 
state  of  Tennessee  has  not  yet  made  any  provision 
for  the  conservation  of  historical  materials;  but 
the  Tennessee  Historical  Society  has  preserved 
much  valuable  documentary  material. 

Books  shedding  light,  from  various  quarters,  upon 
the  life  of  the  people  in  this  period  are:  W.  H. 
Foote,  Sketches  of  North  Carolina,  Historical  and 
Biographical  (1846;  reprinted  1913),  dealing  almost 
exclusively  with  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  the 
Scotch-Irish ;  J.  F.  D.  Smyth,  A  Tour  in  the  United 
States  of  America  (2  vols.,  1784),  untrustworthy 
as  to  historical  events  and  partisan  as  to  politics, 

364 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

but  graphic  in  description  of  the  people  and  the 
country;  William  Bartram,  Travels  through  North 
and  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  East  and  West  Florida 
(1791),  delightful  in  its  simplicity'  and  genial  tone; 
William  Byrd,  History  of  the  Dividing  Line  and 
other  writings  (J.  S.  Bassett's  edition,  1901),  of 
sprightly  style  and  instinct  with  literary  charm, 
pungently  satirical,  untrustworthy  as  to  North 
Carolina;  Joseph  Doddridge,  Notes  on  the  Settle- 
ment and  Indian  Wars  ^c.  (1824;  reprinted  1912), 
photographic  in  its  realistic  delineation  of  back- 
woods conditions ;  J.  H.  Logan,  History  of  Upper 
South  Carolina  (1859)  ;  J.  Rumple,  Rowan  County 
(1881;  reprinted  1916);  Biographical  History  of 
North  Carolina  (8  volumes  printed,  1905-) ;  S. 
Dunbar,  A  History  of  Travel  in  America  (4  vols., 
1915),  first  volume;  Travels  in  the  American  Colo- 
nies, 1690-1783  (Edited  by  N.  D.  Mereness,  1916)  ; 
and  O.  Taylor,  Historic  Sullivan  (1909). 

Many  valuable  articles,  of  both  local  and  national 
interest,  are  found  in  the  excellent  periodical  pub- 
lications: tfames  Sprunt  Historical  Monographs 
and  Publications  (16  vols.,  1900-),  published  by 
the  University  of  North  Carolina ;  North  Carolina 
Booklet  (18  vols.,  1901-),  published  by  the  N.  C. 
Society,  D.  A.  R. ;  Virginia  Magazine  of  History 
and  Biography  (27  vols.,  1893—)  ;  American  His- 
torical Magazine  (8  vols.,  1896-1903)  ;  Tennessee 
Historical  Magazine  (4  vols.,  191 5-)  ;  Register  of 
the  Kentucky  State  Historical  Society   (17  vols., 

365 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

1902-) ;  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review  (6 
vols.,  1914-).  A  notable  study  is  F.  J.  Turner, 
The  Old  West  (Wisconsin  Historical  Society  Pro- 
ceedings, 1908), 

There  is  no  adequate  account  in  print  of  the 
French  and  Indian  War,  in  the  Old  Southwest. 
Useful  sources  are  E.  McCrady,  South  Carolina 
under  the  Royal  Government,  1719-1776  (1899)  ; 
S.  A.  Ashe,  History  of  North  Carolina,  1584,-1783 
(1  vol.,  1908);  L.  P.  Summers,  History  of  South- 
West  Virginia,  17Jp6-1786  (1903);  J.  P.  Hale, 
Trans- Alleghany  Pioneers  (1886)  ;  J.  A.  Waddell, 
Annals  of  Augusta  County,  Virginia  (1886) ;  S. 
Kercheval,  A  History  of  the  Valley  of  Virginia 
(third  edition,  1902);  A.  S.  Withers,  Chronicles 
of  Border  Warfare  (R.  G.  Thwaites'  edition,  1908)  ; 
B.  R.  Carroll,  Historical  Collections  of  South 
Carolina  (2  vols.,  1886) ;  E.  M.  Avery,  History  of 
the  United  States  (7  vols.,  1908),  fourth  volume; 
J.  G.  M.  Ramsey,  Annals  of  Tennessee  (1853) ; 
Calendar  Virginia  State  Papers  (11  vols.,  1875— 
1893).  An  interesting  biography  is  A.  M.  Waddell, 
A  Colonial  Officer  and  his  Times  (1890). 

The  early  explorations  of  the  West,  and  the  career 
of  Boone,  are  treated  with  reasonable  fullness  in 
the  admirable  publications  of  the  Filson  Club  of 
Kentucky  (27  vols.,  1884-) ;  C.  A.  Hanna,  The 
Wilderness  Trail  (2  vols.,  1911);  John  Haywood, 
Civil  and  Political  History  of  Tennessee  (1823; 
reprinted  1891),  written  in  delightfully  quaint  style; 

366 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

L.  and  R.  H.  Collins,  History  of  Kentucky  (2  vols., 
1882),  a  mine  of  conglomerate  material;  N.  M. 
Woods,  The  Woods-McAfee  Memorial  (1905)  ;  A.  B. 
Hulbert,  Pilots  of  the  Republic  (1905)  and  Boone's 
Wilderness  Road  (1903),  attractively  written;  R.  G. 
Thwaites,  Daniel  Boone  (1911),  a  lifeless  condensa- 
tion of  Draper's  sprawling  projected  (MS.)  biog- 
raphy; and  John  Filson,  Kentucke  (1T84). 

Of  the  voluminous  mass  of  literature  dealing  with 
the  Regulation  in  North  Carolina,  one  should  read: 
J.  S.  Bassett,  The  Regulators  of  North  Carolina, 
1765-1771  (American  Historical  Association  Re- 
port, 1894)  ;  M.  DeL.  Haywood,  Governor  Tryon  of 
North  Carolina  (1903)  ;  H.  Husband,  An  Impartial 
Relation  of  the  First  Rise  and  Cause  of  the  Present 
Differences  in  Publick  Affairs,  in  the  Province  of 
North  Carolina  (1770);  and  Archibald  Henderson, 
The  Origin  of  the  Regulation  in  North  Carolina 
(American  Historical  Review,  1910). 

In  addition  to  titles  already  mentioned,  the  follow- 
ing books  and  monographs  give  the  best  accounts 
of  the  Watauga  and  Cumberland  settlements  and 
of  the  State  cf  Franklin:  A.  W.  Putnam,  History 
of  Middle  Tennessee  (1859),  a  remarkably  inter- 
esting book  by  a  real  "character" ;  J.  W.  Caldwell, 
Constitutional  History  of  Tennessee  (second  edi- 
tion, 1907)  ;  F.  M.  Turner,  Life  of  General  John 
Sevier  (1910),  in  pedestrian  style,  reasonably  ac- 
curate for  the  romantic  period  only;  G.  H.  Alden, 
The  State  of  Franklin  (American  Historical  Review, 

S67 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

1903)  ;  S.  B.  Weeks,  Joseph  Martin  (American  His- 
torical Association  Report,  1894)  ;  Archibald  Hen- 
derson, Isaac  Shelby  (North  Carolina  Booklet, 
1917—1918).  The  source  book  for  the  Indian  war 
of  1774  is  Documentary  History  of  Dunmore's  War 
(Edited  by  R.  G.  Thwaites  and  L.  P.  Kellogg, 
1905).  For  exhaustive  data  concerning  the  King's 
Mountain  campaign  and  its  preliminaries,  read  L.  C. 
Draper,  King^s  Mountain  and  its  Heroes  (1881), 
though  the  book  is  lacking  in  discrimination  and 
deficient  in  perspective.  For  a  briefer  treatment, 
read  D.  L.  Schenck,  North  Carolina*  1780-1781 
(1889). 

Other  books  and  monographs  dealing  with  the 
period,  the  westward  movement,  the  settlement  of 
the  trans-Alleghany,  and  the  little  governments,  to 
be  consulted  are :  James  Hall,  Sketches  of  the  West 
(2  vols.,  1835)  and  The  Romance  of  Western  His- 
tory (1857)  ;  Journals  of  the  House  of  Burgesses 
of  Virginia  for  1766-1769  and  1770-1772  (pub- 
lished 1906) ;  G.  H.  Alden,  A^ew  Governments 
West  of  the  Alleghanies  before  1780  (published 
1897);  C.  W.  Alvord,  The  Mississippi  Valley 
in  British  Politics  (2  vols.,  1917),  a  notable 
work,  ably  written  and  embodying  an  immense 
amount  of  information;  J.  T.  Morehead,  Address  at 
Boonesborough,  May  25,  184-0  (published  1840); 
F.  J.  Turner,  The  Significance  of  the  Frontier  in 
American  History  (Wisconsin  Historical  Society 
Proceedings,  1894)   and   Western  State-Making  in 

368 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

the  Revolutionary  Era  (American  Historical  Re- 
view, 1895—1896),  papers  characterised  by  both 
brilliance  and  depth ;  and  Archibald  Henderson,  The 
Creative  Forces  in  Westward  Expansion  (American 
Historical  Review,  1914),  The  Occupation  of  Ken- 
tucky in  1775  (Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Review, 
1914),  The  Founding  of  Nashville  (Tennessee  His- 
torical Magazine,  1916),  and  The  Spanish  Con- 
spiracy in  Tennessee  (Tennessee  Historical  Maga- 
zine, 1917). 

On  the  subject  of  Indian  tribes  and  Indian 
treaties,  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Bureau  of 
Ethnology,  in  especial  numbers  5,  18,  and  19,  al- 
though compiled  from  secondary  historical  sources 
and  occasionally  erroneous  in  important  matters, 
are  useful — as  is  also  Bulletin  22 :  J.  Mooney,  Siouan 
Tribes  of  the  East  (1895).  Rare  and  interesting 
works  dealing  with  the  Eastern  Indian  tribes  are 
H.  Timberlake,  Memoirs  (1765);  J.  Haywood, 
Natural  and  Aboriginal  History  of  Tennessee 
(1823)  ;  and  J.  Adair,  American  Indians  (1775). 

For  both  wider  and  more  intensive  reading  in 
the  history  of  this  period,  consult:  F.  J.  Turner, 
List  of  References  on  the  History  of  the  West 
(Edition  of  1915)  ;  A  Critical  Bibliography  of 
Kentucky  History,  in  R.  M.  McElroy,  Kentucky  in 
the  Nation's  History  (1909);  S.  B.  Weeks,  A 
Bibliography  of  the  Historical  Literature  of  North 
Carolina  (1895)  ;  E.  G.  Swem,  A  Bibliography  of 
Virginia  (Part  I,  1916)  ;  and  the  bibliographies  in 

369 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

J.  Phelan,  History  of  Tennessee  (1888);  E.  Mc- 
Crady,  South  Carolina  under  the  Royal  Government, 
1719-1776  (published  1899)  and  South  Carolina 
in  the  Revolution,  1775-1780  (published  1901)  ;  and 
E.  M.  Avery,  A  History  of  the  United  States 
(1908),  volumes  4,  5,  and  6. 

Note.  For  the  use  of  a  complete  set  of  tran- 
scripts of  the  Richard  Henderson  Papers  in  the 
Draper  Collection,  I  am  indebted  to  the  North 
Carolina  Historical  Commission  through  the  cour- 
tesy of  the  Secretary,  Mr.  R.  D.  W.  Connor. 


370 


INDEX 


Abingdon:  134,  191 

Adams,  John:  250 

Adams,  Samuel:  241,  250 

Ahualco:   144 

Alamance:  see  Battles 

Alexander,  Abraham:  172 

Alexander,  James:  27 

Alexander,  Moses:  27 

Alexander,  Capt.  Nathaniel: 
62 

Alexander,  William:  27 

Alibamu  Fort:  65 

Alleghany  Mountains:  100, 
145,  155,  246,  259,  311 

AUeman's  Ford:  36 

Alrichs,  Herman:  describes 
ambuscade  of  Braddock's 
army,  54 

Amazons:  267 

America:  111,  134,  159,  234, 
248,  329;  continent  of,  198; 
history  of,  286;  emigration 
to,  7;  people  of,  173,  186, 
198,  199;  democracy  in, 
XIV-XV,  174;  colonies 
of,  necessity  for  imion,  65-- 
66 

American:  cause,  185;  con- 
gress, 329,  341;  confedera- 
tion, 215,  259,  281;  repub- 
lic, 329 


American  Revolution:  12,  123, 
239,  259,  267,  270,  277,  305 

American  Union:  319,  335, 
336,  342,  348,  349;  see  Union 

Americans:  190,  300,  329,  339, 
340;  pioneers,  283;  civiliza- 
tion of,  X,  199;  character 
of,  X,  30-31,  195 

Amherst,  Gen.  Jeffrey:  93 

Anderson,  Colonel:  308 

Anshers,  James:  52 

Appalachian  Mountains:  4,  5, 
4.2,  107,  137,  139,  334,  343 

Arkansas:  122 

Atlantic  Ocean:  4 

Atta-kulla-kuUa,  Cherokee 
chief:  66,  74,  76,  217,  242, 
262 

Augusta:  79 


Bacon,  Francis:  172 

Bailey,  Capt.  Andrew:  leads 
sortie  from  Fort  Dobbs,  80- 
82 

Baily,  Francis:  .on  frontiers- 
men, XIV 

Baker,  John:  139 

Baker,  William:  121 

Bainton,  Epaphroditus:  130 

Balboa:  155 

Baptists:  175,  185,  190 


371 


INDEX 


Barbour,  explorer :  1-22 

Battles:  Alamance,  168,  175, 
182-183,  186,  189,  219;  Great 
Kanawha,  of  the,  203-204, 
209,  305;  King's  Mountain, 
at,  ch.  XVIII,  289,  337; 
Lexington,  244,  277;  Long 
Island  Flats,  of,  262-263; 
Musgrove's  Mill,  at,  291 

Beaujeu,  Captain:  53 

Been,  John:  196 

Been,  Mrs.  William:  264 

"Belle  Riviere":  156;  see  Ohio 
River 

Bentham,  Jeremy:  246 

Benton,  Jesse:  222 

Benton,  Samuel:  170 

Benton,  Thomas  Hart:  170 

Bethabara:  38,  56,  75,  85,  161, 
162,  166;  invested  by  In- 
dians, 88 

Bethania:  87 

Bienville  (Blainville)  Celoron 
de:  46-47,  98,  116 

Bieville,  Jean  Baptiste  le 
Moyne,  Sieur  de:  42 

Big  Bone  Lick:  116,  156;  see 
Great  Bone  Lick 

Big  Lick:  33 

Big  Salt  Lick:  284;  see 
French  Lick,  French  Salt 
Springs,  Great  French  Lick, 
Great  Salt  Springs 

Black  Fish,  Schawano  chief: 
adopts  Daniel  Boone,  274 

Bledsoe,  Anthony:  194,  327, 
332,  339,  340,  341,  342,  344 

Bledsoe  family:  123 

Bledsoe,  Isaac:  126;  discovers 
Uck,  124 


Bledsoe's  Lick:  discovery  of, 
described,  124-125 

Blevens:  hunters  named, 
109 

Blevens,  William:  119 

Blount,  William:  348 

Blowing  Rock:  134 

Blue  Licks:   156 

Blue  Ridge:  3,  5,  97,  142 

Board  of  Trade:  Johnston  to, 
3;  Glen  to,  51;  draft  royal 
proclamation,  106 

Boiling  Spring:  243,  253 

Bonn,  Dr.  Jacob:  85 

Boone,  Anne:  23 

Boone,  Daniel:  16,  20,  22,  29, 
38,  41,  101,  108,  110,  115, 
119,  129,  130,  Ch.  IX,  131, 
132,  133,  134,  142,  144,  148, 
153,  155,  156,  158,  159,  160, 
164,  165,  166,  185,  190,  200, 
312,  221,  225,  226,  227,  231, 
232,  235,  236,  280,  282;  per- 
sonal appearance,  37;  at 
Braddock's  Defeat,  54-44; 
meets  Richard  Henderson, 
105;  explores  Tennessee  for 
Henderson  &  Company,  109; 
serves  under  Waddell,  133; 
explores  Kentucky  for 
Richard  Henderson,  ch.  X; 
clears  Transylvania  Trail, 
226;  asks  aid  of  Judge 
Henderson,  227-228;  returns 
to  Boonesborough,  253;  res- 
cues daughter,  271;  rescued 
by  Kenton,  272;  captured, 
272;  adopted  by  Black  Fish, 
274;  deceived  by  Indians, 
274 


S12 


INDEX 


Boone  family:  settles  in  North 
Carolina,  34,  36,  117 

Boone,  George:  21,  165 

Boone,  James:  137 

Boone,  Jemima:  captured  by 
Indians,  271 

Boone,  Jesse:  137 

Boone,  Squire:  21,  34,  35,  36, 
37,  105 

Boone,  Squire,  Jr.:  29,  142, 
156-157;  sent  by  Transyl- 
vania Company  to  aid  Dan- 
iel Boone,  153 

Boone,  William:  23 

Boonesborough :  199,  215,  254, 
277;  Henderson  arrives  at, 
235 ;  Transylvania  conven- 
tion at,  244-248;  Boone  re- 
turns to,  353;  capture  of 
girls  at,  270-271;  besieged 
by  Indians,  272,  273,  274- 
276;  Henderson  returns  to, 
282;  corn  sent  from  to 
French  Lick,  284,  285 

Boone's  Caves:  157 

Boone's  Ford:  36 

Boston:  8,  180 

Botetourt;  Governor,  of  Vir- 
ginia: 192 

Boyd's  Creek:  307 

Braddock,  Gen.  Edward:  53, 
58,  135,  295;  defeat  of,  de- 
scribed, 53-55 

Brandmiiller,  John:  pilgrim- 
age of,   14r-15 

British:  49,  102,  189,  261,  270, 
276,  289,  290,  292,  294,  296, 
299,  302,  342;  Crown,  191, 
200 

Brobdignags:  154 


Brown,  Francis:  57 
Brown,  Jacob:  194,  224 
Brown,  the  widow:  337 
Bryan  family:  203 
Bryan,  James:  22 
Bryan,  Joseph:  22 
Bryan,  Martha:  33 
Bryan,  Morgan:  22,  settled  in 
Pennsylvania,    22,    in    Vir- 
ginia, 23;  in  North  Carolina, 
16,  34,  leads  frontier  rang- 
ers,   75-76,   83;    in   Rowan, 
35 
Bryan,  Morgan,  Jr.:  22 
Bryan,  Rebeckah:  132,  160 
Bryan,  William:  22,  33 
Bryan's  Station:  22 
"BufiFalo  Bill"  (W.  F.  Cody) : 

XV 
Bull,  Lieut.  Gov.  William:  88 
Bullitt,  Capt.  Thomas:  204 
Bullock,      Leonard      Henley: 
Member  Transylvania  Com- 
pany, 218 
Bunker's  Hill:  battle  of,  277 
Burke,  Edmund:  on  charters, 

XI 
Burnaby,   Andrew:   describes 

life  in  backwoods,  32 
Byrd,  Col.  William,  3rd.:  59, 
91,  92,  94,  133,  187,  208, 
210,  249 
Byrd,  William:  36,  45,  98, 
130;  describes  Yadkin  re- 
gion, 35 


Calhoun,  Patrick:  family  at- 
tacked, 79;  commands  Fro- 


373 


INI>EX 


vincial    Rangers,    89;    rela-      Cape  Fear:  53,  75 


lives  of,  168 

Calk,  William:  235;  with  ex- 
ploring party  from  Vir- 
ginia, 2;2G 

Callaway,  Elizabeth:  captured 
by  Indians,  271;  rescued, 
271 

Callaway,  Flanders:  271 

Callaway,  Frances:  capture 
by  Indians,  271;  rescued, 
371 

Callaway,  Col.  Richard:  253; 
commands  in  defence  of 
Transylvania  Fort,  275-276 

Callaway,  Samuel:  110 

Camden:  292 

Camden,  Lord  Chancellor:  201 

Camden- Yorke  opinion :  207, 
239,  240,  241 

Cameron,  Alexander:  194,  261 

Camp    Charlotte:   212 

Campbell,  Col.  Arthur:  inter- 
ested in  Kentucky  lands, 
208;  seeks  partnership  in 
Transylvania  Company  for 
Patrick  Henry,  240;  leads 
force  against  Cherokees, 
307;  plans  Greater  Frank- 
lin, 323 

Campbell,  Colonel  William: 
leads  Virginians,  293; 
elected  commander  King's 
Mountain  expedition,  294; 
at  King's  Mountain,  296, 
299,  300 

Campbell,  David:  314,  321 

Campbell,  John:  263 

Campbell,  Robert :  scalped, 
82 


Captain  Will:  151 
Carlisle:    144 
Carolina:  116,  118 
Carolinas,    the    two:    75,    139, 

201 
Carter,  John:  224 
Carter's  Valley:  195,  224. 
Carteret,  Lord:  lands  of,  9 
Caswell,    Gov.    Richard:    57, 

318,  322,  340 
Catawba  Town:  59 
Catawba  Valley:  10,  13 
Catawbas:   35,   45,   59-62,   64, 
65,  70,  71,  72,  96,  118,   146; 
towns  of,  96;  country,  131 
Cession  Act:  310-311,  326 
Charles  the  Second:  43 
Charleston:  32,  33,  38,  66,  68, 

88,  94,  161,  167,  289 
Charleville ;         Charles :        at 

French  Lick,  44 
Charlotte:  289,  294 
Cherokees:  15,  28,  49,  59-60, 
65,  67,  68,  70,  72,  73,  77,  78, 
86,  88,  89,  91,  96,  111,  112, 
114,  116,  123,  127,  133,  140, 
141,  159,  187,  192,  193,  202, 
206,  216,  221,  222,  225,  .239, 
242,  249,  252,  265,  266,  270, 
290,  307,  310,  316,  331,  346; 
fort  promised  to,  by  South 
Carolina,  58;  treaty  with, 
59;  hunters,  74;  attack  on 
Long  Cane  settlement,  79; 
warriors,  76;  defeated,  83, 
265;  boundary  line,  191; 
chiefs,  217,  242,  316;  coun- 
try of,  64 
Chickamaugas:  308;  towns  of. 


374 


INDEX 


283;  bloody  forage  of,  289- 
290;  quelled,  290 

Chickasaws:  125,  310,  340 

Chilhowee:  307 

Chilllcothe:  204 

Chiswell's  Mine:  112,  191 

Choctaws:  45 

Christian,  Col.  William:  mem- 
ber of  company  to  purchase 
Cherokee  lands,  239;  leads 
Virginia  forces  against 
Cherokees,  266 

Chronicle,  Major  AVilliam: 
killed  at  King's  Mountain, 
301 

Clark,  George  Rogers:  255, 
259,  277;  prospecting  in 
Kentucky,  205;  opinion  of 
Transylvania  title,  248 ; 
Memoir  of,  cited  as  to  Hen- 
derson Claim,  255-256 ; 
threatens  Virginia  with  re- 
volt in  Kentucky,  .257;  vis- 
ited by  James  Robertson, 
281 

Clark,  Jonathan:  248 

Cleveland,  Col.  Benjamin: 
296;  explores  West,  123; 
leads  pioneers  against  In- 
dians, 267;  leads  Wilkes 
volunteers  at  King's  Moun- 
tain, 293;  addresses  troops 
at  King's  Mountain,  297, 
301 

"Cleveland's  Bulldogs":  293, 
301 

Clinch  Valley:  203 

Cocke,  William:  231,  263,  321; 
delegate  from  Franklin  to 
Continental   Congress,   318; 


appeals  to  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin, 324 

Coldwater  Expedition:  340 

Columbus,  Christopher:  144, 
234 

Committee  of  Safety:  259 

Concord:  236 

Conewagoes:  118 

Connolly,  Dr.  John:  205,  208, 
209,  210,  239 

Constitution:  rejected  by 
North  Carolina,  335,  336 

Continent,   European:  4 

Continental  Congress:  249, 
250,  257,  261,  276,  318,  319, 
324,  329 

Cooley,  William :  explores 
Kentucky,  149,  153 

Cooper,  James  Fenimore:  85, 
271 

Corbin,  Francis:  169 

Cornstalk,  Shawanoe  chief : 
204;  leads  Indians  at  the 
Great  Kanawha,  213-214 

Corn  Tassel,  Indian  Chief: 
337 

Cornwallis,  Lord  Charles:  289, 
291,  292,  294,  295,  304 

Cortez,  Hernando:  144 

CouKTiEs:  Albemarle,  99;  An- 
son, 16,  19,  32,  162,  167,  185; 
Armagh,  22;  Augusta,  55, 
198;  Berks,  34;  Botetourt, 
204;  Brunswick,  188;  Bucks, 
8,  22,  34;  Burke,  293;  Ches- 
ter, 22-23;  Culpeper,  138; 
Davidson,  343 ;  Fincastle, 
220;  Floyd,  142;  Frederick, 
55;  Granville,  160,  169,  170, 
179,  181,  218,  291;  Greene, 


375 


INDEX 


312,  326;  Guilford,  203; 
Hampshire,  55;  Hanover, 
108;  Jessamine,  157;  Ken- 
tucky, 258;  Lincoln,  126, 
234,  298;  Mecklenburg,  27, 
30,  171,  200,  245;  Miller, 
205;  Orange,  North  Caro- 
lina, 19,  25-20,  169,  177,  189; 
Orange,  Virginia,  113,  122; 
Philadelphia,  34;  Prince 
William,  2'26',  Roanoke,  33; 
Rowan,  19,  34,  56,  147,  177, 
232,  294,  298;  Rutherford, 
293;  Shenandoah,  198;  Sulli- 
van, 291,  308,  312,  328; 
Sumner,  124,  343;  Surry,  40, 
166,  293,  298,  303;  Tennes- 
see, 343;  Washington,  132, 
277,  293,  312,  319,  336,  337; 
Wayne,  124;  Wilkes,  293; 
York,  Pennsylvania,  52, 
59;  York,  South  Carolina, 
295 

Couture,  Jean:  44 

Cowpens:  294 

Cox,  Charles:  119 

Coytomore,  Lieut.:  murdered 
by  Indians,  80 

Craighead,  Rev.  Alexander : 
30 

Crawford,  "William:  Washing- 
ton to,  on  Western  lands, 
106,  108 

Creeks:  308,  310,  339,  340,  341, 
342,  346 

Creeks:  Bean  Island,  85; 
Bear,  131;  Beaver,  194; 
Bledsoe's,  128;  Crooked, 
213;  Cross,  218;  Dutch- 
man's, 132;  Elk,  137;  Fish, 


205;  Fourth,  57,  58;  Line, 
71;  Linville,  34;  Lulbegrud, 
119,  154;  Otter,  228,  229, 
536;  Sinking,  328,  336; 
Sugar  Tree,  132;  Sugaw, 
59;  Swearing,  135;  Station 
Camp,  124,  150;  Third,  57; 
Walden's,  120 

Cresap,  Col.  Thomas:  101 

Crockett,  Robert:  125 

Croghan,  George:  46,  120 

Cross  Creek  (Fayetteville) : 
218 

Crozat,  Antoine:  43,  44 

Cullodan:   100 

Cumberland:  Colony,  200,  341, 
342,  343;  leaders,  341;  de- 
sire alliance  with  Spain,  343, 
345;  traders,  330;  settle- 
ments, 283,  288,  309,  310, 
330,  340,  345,  346;  settlers, 
328,  342;  desire  separation 
from  North  Carolina,  343; 
valley,  280;  region,  ch. 
XVII,  280,  345,  347 

Cumberland:  outlaw,  165 

"Cumberland  Compact": 

drafted  by  Richard  Hen- 
derson, 285-286 

Cumberland  District:  331,  339, 
341 

Cumberland,  Duke  of:  100 

Cumberland  Gap:  names,  100, 
115;  traversed  by  traders, 
118,  119,  121,  123,  124,  126, 
145,  158,  229;  see  Onasioto 
Oa'2 

Cumberland  Mountains:  100, 
113,  138,  233 

Cutbird,  Benjamin:  139 


376 


INDEX 


D 


Darien:  144 

Dark  and  Bloody  Ground: 
126;  origin  of  name,  223- 
224 

Dartmouth,  Earl  of:  208,  209, 
238 

Dean  Swift:  154 

Declaration  of  Independence: 
258;  read  at  Boonesborough, 
272 

Delaware:  8;  valley,  8 

Demere,  Capt.  Raymond:  76; 
takes  command  of  Virginia 
Fort,  66;  surrenders  Fort 
Laudown,  90-91 

De  Peyster:  298,  299,  301 

De  Soto,  Fernando:  XII 

Detroit:  273 

Devonshire,   East:   21 

Dick,  Captain:  Cherokee 
hunter,  126 

Dinwiddle,  Gov.  Robert:  50, 
53,  55,  58,  65,  67,  70,  72 

Dividing  Line:  running  of  the 
North  Carolina- Virginia, 
269;  William  Byrd's  His- 
tory of  the,  35 

Doak,  Rev.  Samuel:  293 

Dobbs,  Gov.  Arthur:  55,  73, 
77,  92,  93,  169;  sends  com- 
missioner to  treat  with  In- 
dians, 59;  begins  erection  of 
Catawba  Fort,  62,  70;  or- 
ders building  discontinued, 
71 

Dobbs,  Edwards  Brice:  54 

Doddridge,  Joseph:  on  condi- 
tions of  pioneer  life,  125 

377 


Donelson,  Col,  John:  194,  206, 
222,  288;  runs  boundary 
line,  193;  meets  Richard 
Henderson,  269;  leads  party 
by  water  route  to  French 
Lick,  282;  diary  of,  quoted, 
269,  283-284 

Donelson's  line:  194,  224,  239, 
242 

Dragging  Canoe,  the  Cherokee 
chief:  223,  290;  leads  In- 
dians in  battle,  262-263 

Drake,  Enoch:  235 

Drake,  Joseph:  125 

Dunmore,  John  Murray,  Earl 
of:  196,  198,  199,  200,  204, 
206,  210,  211,  220,  238,  239, 
240,  241,  242,  248,  249, 
254 

Dunmore's  War:  ch.  XIII, 
196,  214 

Dugger,  Julius  Caesar:  Ten- 
nessee pioneer,  137,  187 

Dutch,  Pennsylvania:  12,  302 

Dutchman's  Creek  Church: 
185 

E 

East  India  Company:  201 
Eaton's    Station:    defence   of, 

262 
Echota:  64,  66,  307 
Edwards,    Rev.    Morgan:    on 

exodus    of    Regulators    for 

North   Carolina,   175 
Emery,  Will:  127 
England:  land-mad,  XI;  4,  21, 

43,  201,  247 
English:  67,  120,  274;  settlers, 


INDEX 


5,  96;  Revolution,  6;  parlia- 
ment, 7;  colonies,  13;  troops, 
66;  settlements,  46 

Es-Kippa-Ki-Thi-Ki:  117,  150 

Etchowee:  89 


Fagot:  343 

Falls  of  the  Ohio  River 
(Louisville) :  255,  284 

Fanning,  Col.  Edmund:  22, 
172,  173,  176,  177,  180,  182 

Fauquier,  Gov,  Francis:  94 

Fayetteville:  218 

Ferguson,  Col.  Patrick:  291, 
292,  295,  296,  297,  298,  299, 
300;  conduct  at  King's 
Mountain,  302;  killed,  303 

Few,  AVilliam:  describes  life 
in  backwoods,  25 

Fields,  Jeremiah-:  180,  181 

Filson,  John:  117,  147 

Fincastle,  Committee  of  West: 
drafts  protest  against  Tran- 
sylvania Company,  257,  258 

Findlay,  Findley,  Finley: 
Archibald,  22;  Michael,  22 

Findlay,  John:  visits  Ken- 
tucky, 117-118;  meets 
Boone,  144;  visits  Boone  on 
the  Yadkin,  2a,  101,  138, 
148,  149,  150,  153 

Fish,  William:  murdered  by 
Indians,  84 

Fleming,  Col.  William:  208 

Florida:  138;  East,  122,  138; 
West,  122 

Floyd,  John:  212,  243,  254; 
appointed  Surveyor  General 
of  Transylvania,  255 


Fontaine,  John:  journal  of,  97 

Fontainebleau :  212 

Forbes,  Gen.  John:  73,  74,  133 

Forks  of  Ohio  River:  47 

Forts:  Bethabara,  at,  75; 
Boone's,  236,  270;  chain  of, 
83;  Carolina,  75,  84-85;  Ca- 
tawba, G-2,  70,  71;  Cumber- 
land, 53;  Dobbs,  55,  57-58, 
75,  80-82,  84,  87;  Duquesne, 
47,  72-73,  74;  Dutch,  57,  83, 
86; — at  mouth  of  Line 
Creek,  71;  Loudoun,  68,  76, 
88-90;  McDowell's,  265,  270; 
Necessity,  48 ;  Ninety-Six, 
89;  Patrick  Henry,  269, 
282-283;  Pitt,  121,  209; 
Prince  George,  51-52,  79-80, 
91,  93,  94;  Robinson,  94; 
Stalnaker's,  83,  94;  Stanwix, 
treaty  of.  111,  112,  191, 
207;— on  Tellico  River,  68; 
Transylvania,  215,  243,  244, 
245,  253,  270,  272,  274,  276, 
282;  Vaux's,  56,  69;  Vir- 
ginia, 64,  67,  68,  69;  M^a- 
tauga,  263 

Fowey:  254 

France:  43,  78,  96,  99 

Frankland:  318,  331,  339;  ori- 
gin of  name,  314,  321 

Franklin:  89 

Franklin,  Benjamin:  8,  107, 
184,  185;  new  state  named 
for,  314,  324;  to  Cocke,  324; 
to  Sevier,  324-325 

Franklin,  State  of:  200,  ch. 
XIX,  315,  317,  318,  323,  325, 
326,  328,  339,  334,  335,  336, 
337,    338,    344,    347,    348;— 


378 


INDEX 


leaders  of,  326,  330;— legis- 
lature of,  312,  313-314,  316, 
318 ;— Greater,  323;  origin 
of  name,  314,  324 

Freeland's  Station:  309 

French:  45,  47,  48,  49,  65,  66, 
70,  97,  116,  274;  coureura 
de  bois,  44;  Huguenot,  198; 
voyageurs,  123,  128; — Cana- 
dian, 274;  immigration  of, 
5;  settlers,  28;  traders,  44; 
explorations,  46 

French  Lick:  281;  treaty  of 
peace  at,  269.  See  French 
Salt  Springs,  Great  French 
Lick,  Great  Salt  Springs 

French  and  Indian  War:  52, 
10-2,  144,  145 

Frohock,  John:  172,  177 

Frohock,  Thomas:  172,  177 

Frontier:  VII 


G 


Galaspy,  William:  234 
Galissonifere,    Roland    Michel 

Barrin,  Marquis  de  la:  47 
Gammern :      storekeeper      on 

Yadkin,  161 
Gardoqui,  Diego  de:  327,  329, 

330,  331,  332,  333,  334,  335, 

338,  339 
Gee,  Joshua:  98 
George  I:  97 
George  III:  93,  214 
Georgia:    116,    122,    265,    268, 

291,      313;— Assembly      of, 

344;  tours  into,  14 
German:  pioneers,   11-18,  28; 


— Palatinate,  11;  immigra- 
tion, 5,  11-12,  19 

Gilbert  Town:  292 

Gillespie,  Robert:  slain  from 
ambush  by  Indians,  87 

Gist,  Christopher:  46,  108,  114, 
116,  117,  137,  146;  makes 
exploration  for  Ohio  Com- 
pany,  101-102 

Gist,  Nathaniel:  134,  137 

Glen,  Governor  James:  58-59, 
65;  describes  South  Caro- 
lina's condition,  50-51 ; 
promises  Cherokees  a  fort, 
51;  concludes  treaty  at  Sa- 
luda, 51 

Glumdelick:   154 

Gnadenhutten :  56 

Gordon,  Capt.  Harry:  120 

Grandfather  Mountain:  135 

Grant,  Col.  James:  138;  leads 
expedition  against  Indians, 
93 

Granville,  Edward,  Earl  of 
Clarendon,  Lord:  15;  lands 
of,  9-10,  34,  171 

Great  Bone  Licks:  120 

Great  Britain:  48,  247 

Great  French  Lick:  280.  See 
Great  Salt  Springs,  French 
Lick,  French  Salt  Springs 

Great  Grant:  224 

Greathouse,  Darmel:  211 

Great  Meadows:  48,  53 

Great  Mogul:  201 

Great  Tellico:  65 

Great  Trading  Path:  35,  45, 
96,  131 

Great  Treaty:  249 

Great   Salt  Springs:  44,  269. 


819 


INDEX 


See    French    Lick,    French 

Salt  Springs,  Great  French 

Lick 
Great    Warrior's    Path:    118, 

119 
Green:  62 
Greeneville:   319 
Greer,   Andrew:   187 
Grube,  Rev.  Bernhard  Adam: 

heads    settlers    into    North 

Carolina,  16 
Gulf  of  Mexico:  43,  44,  341 
"Gulliver's  Travels":  154 
Gutry,  John:  52 

H 

Hackett:  341 

Hall,  Gen.  William:  116,  128 

Hall,  Rev.  James:  267 

Hambright,  Lt.  Col.  Freder- 
ick: at  King's  Mountain, 
296,  302 

Hamilton,  Gov.  Henry:  273, 
274,  276 

Hampton,  Anthony:  leads 
Rowan   rangers,  83 

Hampton,  Col.  Andrew:  leads 
Rutherford  riflemen,  293 

Hampton,  Gen.  Wade:  83 

Hancock,  John:  241 

Hanks:  family,  23,  34;— Abra- 
ham, 23,  235 

Hard  Labor:  treaty  at,  112, 
114 

Harmar,   outlaw:   165 

Harris,   Col.:   75 

Harris:  Elizabeth,  144;  John, 
145 

Harris's  Ferry:  145 


Harrisburg:   145 
Harrison,  Richard:  255 
Harrod,  James:  121,  205,  212, 

243,  244,  .253 
Harrodsburg:     253;     election 

held  at,  257 
Harrodsburg     Remonstrance: 

Hart:   David,    187,  218;_Na- 
thaniel,    108,   187,   217,   218, 
222,  227,  284;— Thomas,  108, 
187,  218,  222 
Hartman,  George:  38 
Hawkins,   Benjamin:   268 
Hayes:  347 
Haywood,  John:  314 
Hemp  install,  Abraham:  122 
Henderson,  Kentucky:  279 
Henderson,       Col.       Samuel: 
chosen     special     envoy     to 
Franklin,    315-316;    negoti- 
ates with  John  Sevier,  316- 
318 
Henderson,     Nathaniel :     222, 

233,  255 
Henderson,  Richard:  born  in 
Virginia,  104;  removes  to 
North  Carolina,  104;  ac- 
quainted with  Boones,  105; 
promotes  Western  explora- 
tion, 110;  in  law  suits  in- 
volving Boone,  147;  pro- 
motes Western  exploration 
under  Boone's  leadership, 
148-149;  sends  supplies  to 
Boone,  153;  court  broken 
up  by  Regulators,  179-181; 
burned  out  by  Regulators, 
182;  secures  from  English 
authorities  sanction  for  pur- 


380 


INDEX 


chase  of  Indian  lands,  201- 
202 ;     reorganizes     Richard 
Henderson      &      Co.      into 
Louisa  Company,  217;  visits 
Otari    towns,    217-218;    or- 
ganizes  Transylvania  Com- 
pany,    218-i219;     negotiates 
Great   Treaty   with   Chero- 
kees,     221-225;     despatches 
Boone  to  clean  Transylva- 
nia Trail,  225-226;  receives 
urgent  appeal  from  Boone, 
227-229;  hastens  to  Boone's 
rescue,      229-232 ;      reaches 
Fort  Boone,  236;  draws  up 
plan     of     government     for 
Transylvania,   243-244;    ad- 
dresses Legislature  of  Tran- 
sylvania,   237,    245;    elected 
delegate  from  Transylvania 
to     Continental      Congress, 
249;  prepares  plan  of  gov- 
ernment for  Powell's  Valley 
settlement,      252 ;      attends 
Virginia    Convention,    256- 
257;     purchases     corn     for 
Cumberland  settlement,  269 
runs     North     Carolina-Vir 
ginia  dividing  line,  269,  282 
presents  memorial  on  Tran 
sylvania       purchase,       278 
plans  colonization  of  Cum- 
berland     region,      279-280 
despatches     Robertson     on 
prospecting    tour,    280-281 
sends  corn  to  French  Lick, 
284-285 ;    organizes    govern 
ment   on   Cumberland,   285 
author       of       "Cumberland 
Compact,"    286-287;    intro- 


duces recall  of  judges,  286- 
287;  founder  of  Nashville/ 
personal  appearance,  321- 
222;  diary  of,  quoted,  227, 
229;  mentioned,  158,  159, 
183,  187,  190,  200,  203,  215, 
ch.  XIV  passim,  216,  220, 
234,  235,  238,  24^,  241,  242, 
246,  247,  248,  253,  258,  272, 
282,  315 

Henderson,  Richard  &  Com- 
pany: organized,  107;  des- 
patch Boone  on  Western 
exploration,  109,  160,  216- 
217;  granted  200,000  acres 
by  Virginia;  see  Land 
Companies 

Henderson,  Samuel:  104 

Henderson  &  Company;  109; 
see  Richard  Henderson  Sj; 
Company 

Henley,  Chief  Justice  Peter: 
60 

Henry,  Patrick:  209,  211,  249, 
293,  329;  pronounces  Cam- 
den-Yorke  decision  valid, 
210;  endeavors  to  purchase 
lands  from  Cherokees,  239- 
24^;  desires  to  become  part- 
ner in  Transylvania  Com- 
pany, 240;  considers  Tran- 
sylvania title  good,  256; 
confiscates  Transylvania, 
258 ;  correspondence  of, 
with  Joseph  Martin,  344- 
345 

Hewatt,  Rev.  Alexander:  78 

Heydt,  Jost:  settles  in  Vir- 
ginia, 12 

Heygler,  King,  Catawba  chief: 


381 


INDEX 


petitions  for  fort,  60;  pre- 
vents completion  of  fort, 
71;  see  Oroloswa 

Hiawassee:  307 

Hicks,  Harry:  heroic  defence 
of  home  against  Indian  at- 
tack, 85-86 

High  Shoals:  29 

Highlanders:   90 

Hill,  William:  138,  142,  143 

Hillsborough:  26,  103,  179, 
188,  217,  218,  219 

Hillsborough,  Earl  of:  96 

Hingham:  22 

Hogg,  James:  251;  partner 
in  Transylvania  Company, 
218;  appointed  delegate 
from  Transylvania  to  Con- 
tinental Congress,  250 

Holder,  John:  rescues  sweet- 
heart, 271 

Holden,  Joseph:  149,  153 

Hollows,  the:   166 

Holston:  region,  99,  126;  set- 
tlement, 281 ;— settlers,  262; 
valley  of,  134,  187,  191-192, 
306 

Honeycut:  189 

Hooper,  William:  180,  182 

Hopewell:  310 

Horton,  Joshua:  121 

Houston,  Rev.  Samuel:  321, 
323;  drafts  constitution  for 
Frankland,  319;  features  of 
constitution  drafted  by, 
321-322 

Howard,  Cornelius:  165,  166 

Howell,  Rednup :  poet-laure- 
ate of  the  Regulation,  173, 
179 


Hubbardt,  Col.  James:  316 

Hudson  Valley:  4 

Hunter,  James:  179 

Hunter's  Trail:  150 

Husband,  Herman:  author  of 
"Impartial  Relation,"  177, 
178,  197;  leader  in  insur- 
rection at  Hillsborough, 
179;  in  correspondence  with 
Benjamin  Franklin,  184 


Iberville,  Le  Moyne  d':  42-43 
Illinois    Company:    see    Land 

Companies 
Illinois  country:  120,  128,  381 
"Impartial  Relation":  177,  197 
Indian:  agent,  281; — Allies, 
72;  chiefs,  211,  217,  274, 
337 ;— depredations,  56,  163, 
308,  340;— expeditions,  313; 
governments,  201 ;  Grant, 
202;  hostages,  80;— lands, 
161,  308;— outbreak,  74, 
562; — princes,  201; — terri- 
tories, 200;—  towns,  76,  89, 
93,  117,  290,  307,  308;— 
trade,  44-46,  145; — traders, 
144,  145,  217,  225;— trails, 
119,  139;- tribes,  45,  201, 
26 1 ; — war,  325 ; — warfare, 
133,  295-296,  297 ;— affairs, 
superintendent  of.  111 
Indians:  44,  46,  49,  57,  58-63, 
68,  69,  74,  75,  85,  86,  87,  88, 
112,  119,  122,  125,  127,  140, 
151,  152,  156,  162,  196,  197, 
200,  204,  205,  207,  209,  211, 
213,  214,  215,  217,  218,  221, 


382 


INDEX 


Q23,  223,  227,  228,  229,  240, 
242,  249,  252,  253,  261,  262, 
263,  265,  267,  268,  270,  273, 
275,  276,  283,  288,  290,  297, 
306,  307,  308,  311,  332,  339, 
340,  345;— Northern,  49, 
111,  141,  191 ;— Southern, 
35,   191,  261 

Indiana:   123 

Ingles:  John,  69; — Mrs.  Mary, 
69;  — William,  69;  — Mrs. 
William,  69 

Innes,  Col.  James:  53 

Ireland,  7,  22,  33;  character 
of  inhabitants  of  North  of, 
6-7 

Irish:  immigration  of,  5; — 
Pennsylvania,  33;  settlers, 
28 

Iroquois:  117 


Jack,  Col.  Samuel:  265 

Jackson,  Andrew:  282 

Jacobite  uprising:  7 

Jamestown:  6 

Jay,  John:  329-330 

Jefferson,  Thomas:  desires  to 
join  Transylvania  Company, 
240;  favors  free  government 
back  of  Virginia,  350-251; 
attitude  of,  toward  Transyl- 
vania claim,  256 

Jenkins,  Leoline:  on  charac- 
ter of  Scotch-Irish,  6 

Johnson,  Sir  William:  112 

Johnston,  Gov.  Gabriel:  on  im- 
migration into  North  Caro- 
lina, 3 


Johnston,  Gov.  Samuel:  332, 
336,  338,  339;  to  Robertson 
and  Bledsoe,  327 

Johnston,  William:  217 

Jones,  John  Gabriel:  257 

Jones,  Robert  (Robin):  169; 
characterization  of  Scotdi- 
Irish  by,  24-25 

Jonesborough:  29.2,  312,  313, 
316,  337 

Joseph,  Miller:  describes  con- 
ditions of  North  Carolina 
backwoods,  36,  38 

Judge's  Friend,  Cherokee 
chief:  242 


K 

Kenedy,  William:  agent  for 
Virginia  gentlemen  to  pur- 
chase Cherokee  lands,  240 

Kenton,  Simon:  rescues  Dan- 
iel Boone,  272 

Kentucky  (Cantitcky,  Can- 
tuckey,  Cantuckie,  Can- 
tuck):  XV,  22,  100,  101, 
102,  107,  111,  112,  116,  119, 
130,  121,  122,  123,  1,24,  129, 
137,  139,  140,  142,  143,  145, 
146,  148,  149,  150,  153,  155, 
156,  191,  196,  200,  203,  204, 
205,  221,  223,  224,  227,  229, 
231,  233,  234,  235,  256,  259, 
269,  270,  273,  276,  277,  279, 
315,  327,  335,  341,  »42,  348, 
349;  origin  of  name,  117; — 
road,  332 

Keowee:   51; — valley  of,  89 

King's  Mountain:  295,  303 


383 


INDEX 


King's    Mountain    campaign : 

306,  348 
Kipling,  Rudyard:  137 
Kirk:  337 

Kirtleys,  tlie:  pioneers,  113 
Knob  Lick:  126 


Lacey,  Col.  William:  293,  296 

Land:  policy  of  selling  large 
tracts  of,  113 

Land  Companies :  Illinois, 
207-208,  239;  Louisa,  217, 
218;  Loyal,  47,  99-100,  113; 
Ohio,  47;  organized,  100; 
sends  out  exploring  expe- 
dition, 101-102;  Richard 
Henderson  &  Company,  or- 
ganized, 107 ;  Transylvania 
Company,  114,  218;  Wabash 
(Onabache),  209,  238-239 

Land  of  Cockayne:  44 

La  Salle,  Robert  Cavelier  de: 
42 

Laurel  Mountain:  119 

"Leatherstocking  Tales":  85, 
271 

Leestown:  248 

Lewes:  8 

Lenoir  (Le  Noir),  Gen.  Wil- 
liam: describes  costume  of 
pioneer  women,  40-41 ; 
marches  against  Indians;  at 
King's  Mountain,  301-302 

Lery,  Chaussegros  de:   116 

Lewis,  Major  Andrew:  66-67, 
81,  191,  208;  erects  Virginia 
Fort,  64-65;  leads  Sandy 
River  expedition,  70;  com- 


mands  at   Battle  of  Great 

Kanawha,  212,  214-215 
Lexington:  236 

Lincoln :    family,    34 ; — Abra- 
ham, 23,  34,  235;  John,  34; 

— Mordecai,  22-23,  34;  Sam- 
uel,  22;— Sarah,   23 
Lindsay,  Isaac,  121 
Linville:  John,  140,  142;  Capt. 

William,  137,  140,  142 
Linville  Falls:  136,  141 
Lockaber:   192,   193 
Locke,    John:    "Fundamental 

Constitutions"  of,  203 
Loesch,  Brother:  75 
Logan,  Cayuga  Mingo  chief: 

211 
Logan,    Col.    Benjamin:    234, 

277 
Logan,    James:    on    character 

of  squatters,  8-9  ^ 

London:  202 
Loudoun,  Lord:  68 
Long  Cane  Settlement:  79 
Long  Hunters:  XII,  ch.  VIII, 

126,  128,  129,  157,  158,  204 
Long      Island      of      Holston 

River:  94,  194,  195,  226,  266, 

278,  308 
Long,  John:  slain  by  Indians, 

87 
Long  Knives:  213 
Longueuil,  Charles  de  Moyne, 

Baron  de:  116 
Lorbulgrud:   154 
Louis  Quatorze:  43 
Louisa    Company:    see    Land 

Companies 
Louisiana:  292,  331 
Love,  Col.:  266 


384. 


INDEX 


Lower  Blue  Licks:  101 
Lower  Salt  Spring:  273 
Lower  Shawnee  Town:  101 
Lowry,  James:  118 
Loyal    Company:    see    Land 

Companies 
Loyalists:   190,  261,  291,  298, 

299 
Lucas,  Robert:  224 
Luhny,    Robert,    mill    of,    on 

James  River,  16 
Luttrell,  Col.  John:  227;  joins 

Transylvania  Company,  217 
Lyttelton,        Gov.        William 

Henry:  65-66,  71,  77,  78,  88 


M 

Madison,  Thomas:  263 

Madrid:  341,  342 

Mansfield,  Low:  201 

Mansker,  Gasper,  pioneer: 
123,  282;  discovers  lick,  124; 
encounters  Boone,  157-158 

Mansker's  Lick:  110,  124 

Margry,  Pierre:  43 

Martin,  Gov.  Alexander:  182, 
312,  315,  316,  322;  attorney 
for  Daniel  Boone,  148;  ap- 
points Samuel  Henderson 
ambassador  to  Franklin, 
315;  issues  manifesto 
against  State  of  Franklin, 
306,  318;  Sevier  to,  on 
Franklin,  317-318;  academy 
named  for,  318 

Martin,  CoL  Joseph:  150,  227, 
262,  290,  306,  307,  313,  322, 
325;  settles  in  Powell's  Val- 


ley, 113;  driven  out,  114: 
appointed  agent  for  Tran- 
sylvania Company,  202 ; 
Richard  Henderson  to,  252- 
253;  letter  of,  to  Governor 
Randolph,  326 ;  exonerated 
of  treason  by  North  Caro- 
lina Assembly,  344;  acts  as 
spy  on  Spaniards,  344-345 

Martin,  Gov.  Josiah:  103,  200; 
issues  proclamation  against 
Transylvania  Company,  238 

Martin's  Station:  226,  229; 
founded,  220-221;  Hender- 
son draws  up  plan  of  gov- 
ernment for,  252;  brave  de- 
fence of,  against  Indians, 
253 

Maryland:  5,  14,  24,  101,  114; 
price  of  lands  in,  9 

Mason,  George:  opposed  tp 
Transylvania  claim,   256 

Maxwell,  Col.  George:  328,  332 

McAden,  Rev.  Hugh:  diary 
of,  27-28,  49,  69 

McAfees:  243;  exploring 
party,  204;  return  home, 
235 ;— J  ames,  235 ; — Robert, 
235;  Robert,  Jr.,  235;  Sam- 
uel, 235;  William,  235 

McBride,- James:  117 

McCuUoch,  Major  John:  122 

McCuUoh,  Henry  Eustace: 
172 

McDowell,  Col.:  265 

McDowell,  Col.  Charles:  291, 
293,  337 

McDowell,  Col.  Joseph:  293, 
296,  298,  337 

McDowell,  Thomas:  228 


385 


INDEX 


McFeters,  Jeremiah:  228 

McGillivray,  Alexander:  339, 
342,  344,  345;  receives  over- 
tures from  Cumberland 
leaders,  341 

Mendenliall:  John,  203;— 
Richard,  203 

Middle  Ground:  111 

Middle  Settlements:  93 

Middleton,  Col.  Thomas:  93 

Middle  Towns:  89 

Middle  West:  117 

Millerst,own:  198 

Miro,  District  of:  343,  346 

Miro,  Gov.  Estevan:  331,  335, 
338,  339,  341,  342,  343,  344, 
345;  reports  on  separatist 
movement  in  West,  342 

Mississippi  Bubble:  43 

Mohawk  Valley:  4 

Monbrenn,  Timothy  de:  hunts 
on  Cumberland,  128 

Monongahela:  205 

Montagu,  Lord  Charles:  168- 
169 

Montgomerie,  Col.  Archibald: 
abortive  campaign  of, 
against  Indians,  88-89; 
sails,  92 

Montreal:  118 

Mooney,  James:  explores 
Kentucky,  149,  153 

Moore:  62 

Moravian:  church,  1,  3,  88- 
89,  166; — community  diary, 
88;— brotherhood,  15-16;— 
town,  56;  Gemein  Haus, 
87; — store-keeper,   161 

Moravians:  166;  eleven  killed, 
56;  warned  against  Indians, 

386 


85;    hospitable    to    Indians, 

86 
Morgan  family:  34; — Edward, 

21;  Sarah,  21,  34;— Richard, 

34 
Morganton:   337,   338 
Morris,  Gov.  Samuel:  54 
Morrison:  337 
Mount  Mitchell:  135 
Mulberry  Fields:  15,  163  i 

MuUer,  Adam:  settles  in  Vir-         J 

ginia,  12 
Murray,    William:    207,    208, 

238,  239 

N 

Nantahala  Mountains:  267 

Nash,  Gen.  Francis:  177,  288 

Nashborough:  309 

Nashville:  282,  342,  345 

Nassau  Hall:  27,  267 

Natchez:  123,  125,  330 

Neely,  Alexander:  153,  154 

Neilson,  Archibald:  219 

Nelson,  Acting  Governor  Wil- 
liam: 96,  188 

Newcastle:  8 

New  England:  4,  86 

New  Jersey:  5 

"Newlanders":  11 

Newman,  hunter:  119 

Newman's  Ridge:  119 

New  Orleans:  123,  343,  345 

New  River:  region,  123,  126; 
— settlement,  69 ; — settlers, 
70 

"Nolichucky  Jack  of  the  Bor- 
der": 332 

Nolichucky:  Valley,  224 


INDEX 


North  America:  120,  202 

North  Carolina:  XV,  5,  10, 
13,  14,  15,  43,  52,  55,  59,  71, 
73,  84,  99,  101,  107,  116,  130, 
134,  136,  140,  160,  162,  163, 
167,  174,  175,  176,  186,  187, 
188,  191,  192,  193,  194,  197, 
200,  203,  218,  219,  220,  221, 
222,  237,  238,  245,  259,  260, 
261,  265,  269,  277,  278,  279, 
280,  281,  282,  288,  289,  290, 
291,  295,  304,  305,  307,  310, 
311,  312,  313,  317,  319,  322, 
323,  324,  325,  326,  328,  330, 
332,  335,  339,  343,  344,  345, 
346,  347;  frontier  conditions 
in,  25-28;— border,  76;— 
back  country,  261;  grants 
lands  in  Tennessee  to  Tran- 
sylvania Company,  287;  im- 
migration into,  10,  13;  in- 
crease in  population  of,  3, 
11; — piedmont,  9,  26; — 
hunters,  141;  pioneers,  95; 
governor  of,  60;  commis- 
sioners of,  310;  troops,  53, 
72,  77,  89,  93,  94,  266,  273; 
cedes  Western  territory  to 
United  States,  347;  legisla- 
ture of,  passes  second  ces- 
sion act,  347; — lands  ac- 
cepted by  Congress,  348 

North  Carolina  Assembly:  57- 
58,  61,  92,  93,  277,  313,  314, 
338,  343 

North  Carolina :  Provincial 
Congress  of,  259,  277;  Pro- 
vincial Council  of,  260,  265, 
266 

Northwest:  259,  261,  270,  277 


Nottaway  Indians:  72 
Nuntewees:  65 

O 

Oconostota,  Cherokee  chief: 
242;  treacherously  murders 
Lieut.  Coytomore,  79-80 

Ohio  Company:  see  Land 
Companies 

Ohio  Indians:  46 

Ohio  Valley:  102,  145 

Old  Abraham:  263 

Old  Chilllcothe:  212 

Old  Southwest:  104,  126,  195, 
198,  212,  226,  260,  265,  305, 
309,  348;  pioneers  of,  XV, 
5,  12,  14,  17,  28-31;  pioneer 
democracy  of,  20-21,  103- 
104; — planter  aristocracy 
of,  20; — Mimic  republics  of, 
200; — colonizers   of,  20 

Ormond,  Duke  of:  to  Leoline 
Jenkins,  6 

Oroloswa,  Catawba  Chief:  71, 
see  King  Heygler 

Osborne,  Captain  Alexander: 
leads  Rowan  militia,  62 

Otari  towns:  217 

Ouasioto  Gap:  118,  145,  146, 
150;  see  Cumberland  Gap 

Outassitus,  Cherokee  chief:  91 

Overton,  Samuel:  239 

Owen,  William:  163,  164,  165 

Oxford:  249 


Pacific  Ocean:  144 
Page,  John:  239 


387 


INDEX 


Paintsville:  100 

Paris:  43 

Path  Deed:  224 

Paxtong:  145 

Pearis,  Capt.  Richard:  70 

Peck,  John  M.:  148 

Penn,  William:  8,  21,  22 

Pennsylvania:  5,  10,  13,  27, 
33,  45,  54,  99,  118,  144,  209, 
277;  population  of,  8;  lands, 
9;  immigrants  into,  12; — 
Synod,  13;— settlers,  146;— 
Proprietaries  of.  111; — 
traders,  146,  207 

Pensacola:  138,  139 

Perkins,  John:  defeats  In- 
dians by  strategy,  83-84 

Phifer,  Martin:  leads  frontier 
rangers,  83 

Philadelphia:  8,  32,  123,  185, 
249,  250 

Pilot  Knob:  102,  118,  119 

Pilot  Mountain:  135 

Piomingo,  Chickasaw  chief: 
125 

Pioneer:  farmer,  IX;  pro- 
moter, XI 

Pittsburgh:   122 

"Pocahontas  of  the  West": 
262;  see  Nancy  Ward 

Point  Pleasant:  213 

Polk,  Thomas:  172 

Ponce  de  Leon:  XII 

Portwood,  age:  232 

Post  St.  Vincent:  281 

Pound  Gap:  102 

Powell's  Mountain:  224 

Powell's  Valley:  113,  114,  149, 
203,  224,  252;  lands  in, 
granted      to     Transylvania 


Company,  287-288 

Presbyterians:  in  Ireland,  7; 
—Scotch-Irish,   27 

Preston,  Col.  William:  208, 
212,  240;  to  Lord  Dunmore 
on  Henderson's  offers  of 
land,  220;  to  George  Wash- 
ington on  Transylvania, 
237-238,  242-243;— supports 
Judge  Henderson,  254 

Price,  Thomas,  Indian  trader: 
guides  Henderson  at  Hart 
to  Otari  towns,  217;  testi- 
fies regarding  Great  Treaty, 
225 

Price's  Meadow:  124 

Privy  Council:  206 

"Proposals  for  the  encourage- 
ment of  settling  the  lands, 
etc.":  issued  by  Transylva- 
nia Company,  219,  220 

Puritan:  86 

Q 

Quaker  Meadows:  294 

Quakers:  20-21 

Quebec:  212 

Quindre,  Dagniaux  de:  com- 
mands at  siege  of  Transyl- 
vania Fort,  274-276 

R 

Rains,  John:  123 

Randolph,  Col.  Peter:  treaty 
commissioner,  59 

Recall  of  Judges:  early  ex- 
ample, 286-587 

Red  Lick  Fork:  150 


388 


INDEX 


Regulation:  167,  173,  174,  175, 
176,  182,  192 

Regulators:  ch.  XI,  166,  167, 
168,  175,  176,  177,  179,  180, 
181,  183,  185,   190 

Reid,  Capt.  Mayne:  282 

Revere,  Paul:  231 

Richard  Henderson  &  Com- 
pany: 119,  129,  138;  organ- 
ized, 107;  despatch  Boone 
on  exploring  expedition, 
109;  granted  land  by  Vir- 
ginia, 279.  See  Land  Com- 
panies 

Richter:  166 

Rivers:  Big  Sandy,  west  fork 
of,  142;  Broad,  59,  289;  Ca- 
tawba, 62,  70,  83,  84;— 
South  fork  of,  298;  Chatta- 
hoochee, 266;  Cherokee,  111, 
121;  Clinch,  142;  Cumber- 
land, 44,  109,  114,  119,  121, 
128,  157,  223,  224,  269,  284, 
288,  308;  Dick's,  126,  156; 
Great  Kanawha,  107,  112, 
191,  192,  193;  Guen,  151,  157, 
188,  279,  294;  Hiwassee,  332; 
Holston,  142,  192,  194,  195, 
224,  283;  Illinois,  207; 
James,  16,  96-97;  Kentucky, 
156,  159,  212,  236,  242,  248, 
253,  284;  Licking,  156;  Lit- 
tle Tennessee,  65,  307; 
Louisa,  149,  193;  Meho,  163; 
Miami,  102;  Mississippi,  42, 
102,  139,  155,  259,  329,  330, 
343;  Muskingum,  102;  New, 
224 ;  Nonachunbreh,  Noli- 
chuetry,  194,  197;  Ohio,  42, 
44,  45,   100,   107,  116,   117, 


121,  122,  142,  151,  156,  191, 
192,    193,    207,    213,    279;— 
falls  of  the,  255,  284;— forks 
of    the,    47;    Opeckon,    12 
Pacolet,   76;   Potomac,  122 
Red,   119,  153,   154;   Reedy, 
112,      191;      Roanoke,     69 
Rockcastle,  100,  155;  Scioto, 
102;         Shenandoah,         17 
Stone's,     121 ;     Swannanoa, 
136;  TeUico,  68;  Tennessee, 
44,   58,    121,    191,   283,   290 
Trinity,  42;    Tugaloo,   266 
Twelve    Mile,   89;    Wabash, 
123;     Washita,     122;     Wa- 
tauga, 197,  219,  221,  224,  293 

Robertson,  Charles:  224 

Robertson,  James:  188,  189, 
190,  196,  197,  200,  222,  260, 
263,  287,  309,  327,  332,  339, 
340,  341,  342,  344,  347;  leads 
scouting  party  for  Transyl- 
vania Company,  280-281 ; 
guides  party  to  French 
Lick,  282;  joined  by  Donel- 
son  and  party,  284;  names 
Mir6  District,  343;  desires 
union  with  Spain,  343;  seeks 
separation  of  Cumberland 
from  North  Carolina,  345; 
to  Mir6  on  separatist  move- 
ment, 346 

Robinson,  John:  69 

Rochelle:  43 

Rocky  Mountains:  135 

Rogers,  Sergt.:  73 

Rogersville:  290 

Roan  Mountain:  135 

Round-0,  Cherokee  chief:  79 

Rowan,  Matthew:  19,  76 


389 


INDEX 


Rowan  rangers:  83;  described, 
83-83 

Rowan:  settlers  murdered,  77, 
265 

Rucker,  Capt.:  113 

Rutherford,  Gen.  Griffith: 
leads  Rowan  rangers,  76, 
83;  leads  rescuing  force, 
265,  270;  leads  army  against 
Cherokees,  267 

Russell,  Capt.  William:  203 


Saint  Augustine:  138 

Saint  Lusson,  Daumont  de: 
41-42 

Salem:  87 

Salisbury:  34,  38,  59,  146,  148, 
162,  165,  166,  168,  172,  289 

Sailing,  John  Peter:  117 

San  Salvador:   144 

Sandy  Creek  Association:  175, 
184,  185,  190 

Sandy  River  expedition:  70 

Sapona  Town:  35 

Sault  Ste.  Marie:  41 

Savannah:  51 

Savannah  Indians:  65 

Scaggs,  Charles:  126 

Scaggs,  Henry:  282;  meets 
Daniel  Boone,  109;  agent 
for  Richard  Henderson  & 
Co.,  109-110;  explores  Cum- 
berland region,  119;  leads 
Long  Hunters  into  Ken- 
tucky, 125-126 

Scaggs'  Ridge:  120 

Schnell,  Leonard:  pilgrimage 
of,  14^15 


Scotch  Lowlands:  6 

Scotch-Irish:  7,  11,  27,  33,  188; 
in  Pennsylvania,  8; — immi- 
gration of,  5,  19 ;  settlers,  28 

Scotchman:  218 

Scotland:  217 

Scovil:  168 

Searcy:  connection,  190;  Reu- 
ben, 169;  Valentine,  222 

Settiquo:  76,  307,  316 

Sevier,  James:  emissary  of 
Franklin  to  Mir6,  337-338 

Sevier,  John:  200,  222,  260, 
298,  313-314,  322,  325,  326, 
327,  330,  337,  344,  347;  early 
life,  198;  defends  Watauga 
Fort,  263;  rescues  Bonny 
Kate  Sherrill,  264;  with 
Shelly  plans  King's  Moun- 
tain campaign,  292,  296;  de- 
feats Indians,  307-308;  dis- 
avows revolutionary  intent, 
315;  elected  Governor  of 
Franklin,  317;  writes  de- 
.  fiant  letter  to  Caswell,  323- 
324;  appeals  to  Benjamin 
Franklin,  324;  besieges  Tip- 
ton, 330;  attacks  Indians, 
331-332;  writes  Gardoqui, 
offering  to  "deliver"  Frank- 
lin to  Spain,  333-335;  ar- 
rested for  high  treason,  im- 
prisoned, 337;  rescued,  338; 
restored  to  office  by  North 
Carolina,  338;  elected  first 
governor  of  Tennessee,  348 

Shawanoes,  Shawnese:  25,  44, 
69,  117,  151,  203,  205,  209, 
271;— chief  of,  204 

Shelby,  Col.  Evan:  leads  force 


390 


INDEX 


against  Chickamaugas,  290; 
appointed  brigadier-gen- 
eral,  322 

Shelby,  Isaac:  222,  291,  298; 
at  Battle  of  Great  Ka- 
nawha, 213-214;  initiates 
King's  Mountain  campaign, 
292;  at  King's  Mountain, 
301;  elected  first  governor 
of  Kentucky,  348 

Shelby,  Capt.  James:  263 

Shenandoah  Valley:  10,  34 

Sherrill,  Katherine:  rescued 
by  John  Sevier,  264 

Silonee,  Cherokee  chief:  79; 
checks  Montgomerle,  89;  see 
Young  Warrior  of  Estatoe 

Sims,  George:  writes  A  Seri- 
ous Address,  etc.,  160,  169, 
170 

Simms,  William  Gilraore:  144 

Six  Nations:  111,  191 

Slaughter:  138 

Slaughter,  Col.  Thomas:  244 

Smith,  Capt.  John:  69 

Smith,  Gen.  Daniel:  343,  344 

Smith,  James:   121 

Smith,  John,  Jr.:  69 

Smith,  William  Bailey:  222; 
carries  corn  to  French  Lick, 
284 

Smith's  Bridge:  89 

Smyth,  J,  F.  D.:  describes 
North  Carolina  backwoods- 
men, 39-40 

South  Carolina:  XV,  14,  27- 
28,  43,  45,  58,  66,  68,  71,  112, 
121,  139,  167,  192,  237,  262, 
265,  268,  291,  294,  295,  305, 
313;  rangers,  89;  traders,  71 


South  Fork  of  Catawba  River, 

62,    70;— Boys,   298,  301 
South  Sea:  XI,  42 
South  Sea  Islands:  219 
Southwest:  see  Old  Southwest 
Southwest  Territory:  348 
Southern     Department:     111, 

331 
Spach:  166 

Spain:  ch.  XX,  330,  331,  332, 
337,  338,  339,  340,  344,  345, 
347 
Spangenberg,   Bishop   Augus- 
tus Gottlieb:  makes  explor- 
ing    tour,      13,      14,      131; 
preaches  at  Bathama,  87 
Spaniards:  292,  332,  340,  345 
Spanish:       authorities,      339; 
charged    affairs,   339 ; — con- 
spiracy   in    Kentucky,    335, 
339; — conspiracy  in  Tennes- 
see,   ch.    XX,    339; — court, 
347; — domain,  348 ; — govern- 
ment, 346 ; — minister,  331 ; — 
traders,  340 
Spotswood,    Gov.    Alexander: 

97,  98 
St.  Asaph's:  243 
St.  Clair,  Sir  John:  54 
St.  Clair,  Gen.  Arthur:  133 
Stalnaker,  Samuel:  83,  94 
Stanford:  243 
Steep  Rock:  194 
Stephen,  Col.  Adam:  94,  95 
Stewart,  John:   139,   148,  149, 

150,  151,  152,  153 
Stone,  Uriah:  121,  123 
Stoner,  Michael:  121,  212,  232, 

272 
Stuart,  Capt  John:  91-92 


391 


INDEX 


Stuart,  John:  111,  191,  192, 
194-,  261 

Stuart,  pioneer:  283 

Superintendent  of  Indian  Af- 
fairs: 112,  331 

Swan,  David  L,:  252 

Switzerland:  134 

Sycamore  Shoals  of  Watauga 
River:  219,  221,  263,  293 

Synge,  Archbishop:  7 


Tascarora  Indians:  72 

Tate,  Samuel:  228 

Taylor:  Hancock,  122;— Rich- 
ard, 122;  Zachary,  122 

Tennessee:  XV,  9,  112,  124, 
128,  129,  132,  140,  190,  191, 
192,  196,  211,  224,  269,  289, 
290,  315,  348,  349 ;  countries, 
332 ;— riflemen,  29 1 ;— settle- 
ments, 261,  264,  314,  315;— 
settlers,  270,  281,  330,  331 

Terre  Haute:  123 

Thompson:  84 

Thompson,  James:  263 

Tiftoe,  Cherokee  Chief:  79 

Tipton,  Col.  John:  321,  322, 
328,  331 

Tipton,  Jonathan:  322 

Tonti,  Henry  de:  45 

Tories:  289,  305 

Town  Fork:  163 

Trabum,  Damie:  diary  of,  275 

Tracey,  John:  69 

Trade:  British,  46 

Traders:  with  Indians,  VII- 

392 


IX,  44,  46,  59,  113,  117,  118, 
136 

Trading  Ford:  35 

Trading  House:  British,  47 

Trans- Alleghany:  21,  48,  99, 
102,  119,  129,  140,  147,  159, 
185,  201,  202,  204,  206,  212, 
215,  216,  242,  277,  279,  330, 
340 

Transylvania:  200,  235,  ch. 
XV,  243,  248,  252,  258,  279, 
280,  287;  colony  of,  25; 
president  of,  246;  proprie- 
tors of,  229,  236,  244,  248, 
256 

Transylvania  Company:  114, 
119,  ch.  XII,  237,  238,  240, 
249,  253,  254,  258,  278,  287, 
288;  compact  of,  with  Cum- 
berland settlers,  285-286; 
organized,  218;  permanent 
contribution  of,  to  coloniza- 
tion of  West,  259 

Transylvania  Legislature:  244, 
249,  255 

Transylvania  Purchase:  220, 
248,  278 

Transylvania  Trail:  215,  226 

Treaty:  with  Indians,  59;  at 
Charleston,  94;  at  Fort 
Stanwix,  111;  at  Hard  La- 
bor, 112,  114;  at  Lochaber, 
192;  at  Sycamore  Shoals, 
221-225 

Trent,  Capt.  William:  47 

Tryon,  Gov.  William:  112,  141, 
176,  183,  191 

Tryon  Mountain:  112,  135,  191 

Tryon's  Line:  112 

Tuckasegee:  307 


INDEX 


U 

Ulster:  6-7 

Ulster  Scots:  characterization 

of,  23,  32 
Unakas:  263 
Union:  319,  335,  336,  342,  348, 

349;  see  American  Union 
United  States:  277,  335,  339, 

344,  345,  346,  347 
United  States  Congress:  310, 

311,  312,  346 
Untoola:  316 
Upper  Towns:  66,  89 
Utopia:  44 


Valley  of  Mexico:  144> 

Vandalia:  206,  208 

Vasco  Nunez:  144 

Venango:  47 

Versailles:  43 

Villiers,  Coulon  de:  48 

Virginia:  pioneers  of,  95,  296; 
— traders,  96; — troops,  212, 
266,  273;— frontier,  74;  Ga- 
zette, 110,  272; — backwoods, 
28-29 ;— Valley  of,  9,  16,  26, 
33,  34;— Convention,  251, 
257;— Land  Office,  281;— 
Assembly,  67,  278 ;— Militia, 
209 ; — House  of  Delegates, 
278,  279;— Governor  of,  67, 
198;— Path,  64,  76;— Re- 
monstrance, 207,  XV,  10,  14, 
42,  45,  47,  52,  53,  58,  59,  64, 
68,  69,  70,  72,  83,  96,  99, 
112,  113,  114,  116,  118,  127, 
130,  131,  132,  134,  138,  163, 


187,  188, 

191, 

192, 

193, 

195, 

198,  200, 

204, 

205, 

206, 

209, 

211,  214, 

220, 

221, 

222, 

226, 

235,  237, 

239, 

242, 

243, 

244, 

251,  256, 

258, 

265, 

269, 

277, 

278,  279, 

281, 

282, 

287, 

290, 

305,  323, 

326 

Virginians ; 

:  96, 

205, 

208, 

230, 

231,  251, 

299 

w 

Wabash  (Ouabache)  Land 
Company:  see  Land  Compa- 
begins  erection  of  Catawba 
nies 

Wachan:  83,  87 

Wachonia:  86; — community 
diary,  64 

Wade,  Capt.  Robert:  74 

Waddell,  Gen.  Hugh:  53,  55- 
56,  95,  133,  134;  appointed 
Indian  commissioner,  59; 
Fort,  70;  discontinues  work 
on  fort,  71;  in  Fort  Du- 
quesne  campaign,  72;  has- 
tens to  Rowan's  defence,  76; 
marches  to  aid  South  Caro- 
lina, 77;  report  of,  on  de- 
feat of  Indians  at  Fort 
Dobbs,  81-82;  rescues  cap- 
tives, 86;  leads  North  Caro- 
lina troops,  93,  94 

Walden,  Elisha:  119 

Walden's  Mountain:  119-120 

Walker,  Dr.  Thomas:  99,  102, 
115,  116,  117,  191;  makes  ex- 
ploration for  Loyal  Land 
Company,  99-100;  sells  land 
to  Joseph  Martin,  113 


393 


INDEX 


Walker,  Felix:  228,  245,  260; 
describes  Kentucky,  233-234 

Walpole,  Thomas,  206 

Ward,  James:  139 

Ward,  Nancy:  262,  264 

Washington  District:  260,  277, 
314,  326 

Washington,  George:  47,  55, 
72,  134,  256,  291;  opinion  of 
royal  proclamation,  106; 
purchases  Western  lands, 
106-107;  makes  charges 
against  Dunmore,  206-207; 
secures  military  grants  for 
Western  lands,  208;  Preston 
to,  on  Henderson  purchase 
and  Transylvania  Company, 
221,  237-238,  242-243 

Watauga:  ch,  XII,  191,  194, 
200,  270,  281-282;— com- 
monwealth, 199;  valley  of, 
188,  195,  190,  306;— coun- 
try, 187,  189;  settlers,  195, 
196;  197,  200,  259;— Articles 
of  Association,  197; — Asso- 
ciation, 224;  settlement,  260, 
281 

"Watauga  Plan":  commission 
form  of  government,  260 

Waxhaws:  32 

Webster:  307 

Welsh:  immigration  of,  5; — 
settlers,  28; stock,  163 

West:  160,  187,  259,  273,  277, 
327,  342,  348 

West  Virginia:  14,  206 

Western:  leaders,  292; — peo- 
ple, 347;— settlers,  311,  329; 
territory,  347,  348 ;— w^aters, 
314,  348 


Wharton:       Samuel,      206; — 

Thomas,  209-211 
White,   Dr.   James:   331,   332, 

338,      346;       emissary      of 

Franklin,  337 
Whitehall:  206 
Wilderness  Trail:  230 
Wilkinson,     General     James: 

335,  336 
Williams,      Brigadier-General 

James:   291,   294;   killed   at 

King's  Mountain,  302 
Williams,  Col.  John:  105,  107, 

149,    187,   222,   254;   elected 

delegate  from  Transylvania 

to  Continental  Congress,  249 
Williams,  John:  141 
Williams  and  Henderson,  law 

firm:  105,  147 
WiUiamsborough:   103 
Williamsburg:  210 
Williamson,  Col.  Andrew:  266 
Williamson,    Dr.     Hugh:    10, 

312-313 
Wilmington:  169 
Winchester,  Kentucky:  117 
Winchester,  Virginia:  12 
Winston,  Major  Joseph:  leads 

North        Carolina       troops 

against       Cherokees,      266 ; 

leads     Surry     riflemen     at 

King's   Mountain,   293,  298, 

303-304 
Wolf  Hills   (Abingdon):  134 
Wood,  Col.  Abraham:  42 
Wormley,   Ralph:  239 
Wythe  ville:  112 


Yadkin:    country,     117,     131, 


394 


INDEX 

139,    143,    145,    163,    164;—  Young    Warrior    of    Estaloe, 

Forks   of  the,  33,   34,   162,  Cherokee     chief:     79;     see 

185;— valley,  10,  13,  15,  32  Silonee. 

York,  Pennsylvania:  12  Z 
Yorke,  Charles:  renders  legal 

opinion,  201  Zinzendorf,  Count:  13 


395 


UCLA-college  Library 

F  396  H38 


L  005  702  739  3 


college 
Library 

F 

396 

H38 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A    001  215  092    6 


